I listen locally to the Charleston/Berkeley and Dorchester/ Colleton channels and hardly hear anything most of the time. Even listening to the online scanners from different parts of the state with the Highway Patrol seems so quiet. Anybody have any info on this or are they just usually not very busy?
Does the SCHP get calls/do traffic stops through their computers?
- Thread starter JRay1670
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I only listen to SCHP Lexington/Richland, but they stay very busy. They are either being dispatched to MVC's or calling out on Traffic Stops, running tags, etc. I often times will AVOID/Lockout their talkgroup if i'm not traveling the interstate so I can listen to other agencies.
Same in the Upstate - plenty of radio traffic. In this area, I'd estimate they work crashes or other traffic issues at least 80% of the time, which are dispatched over the radio. But I certainly do hear traffic stops over the radio too. I don't hear nearly as many traffic stops as I used to, maybe because there aren't as many troopers out on the road as there used to be and there are more crashes to respond to.
Make sure you have things set up in your scanner to support talkgroup patches. SCHP makes regular use of patches among dispatch talkgroups within troops. This means that at any time, from a scanner standpoint, dispatch for Troop 6 might be on the Charleston/Berkeley talkgroup, and then switch to Dorchester/Colleton, and then switch to Beaufort/Jasper. It doesn't switch often, meaning within seconds or minutes, but may change every few hours. This is used because dispatcher availability fluctuates at different times. If there is only one dispatcher for a troop on duty, they will patch the talkgroups together to make it easier to manage radio traffic.
If you're not set up for patching, you may be missing traffic. I don't know what radio you're using, but my GRE PSR-500 family of radios and Whistler WS-1080 support this feature by default. If I'm monitoring the SCHP Spartanburg talkgroup, but it's patched with the Greenville talkgroup, I'll see "patch" in the display of my scanner. If you're not sure, program in the SCHP Beaufort/Jasper talkgroup and listen to all three Troop 6 dispatch talkgroups. See if you hear more traffic.
Make sure you have things set up in your scanner to support talkgroup patches. SCHP makes regular use of patches among dispatch talkgroups within troops. This means that at any time, from a scanner standpoint, dispatch for Troop 6 might be on the Charleston/Berkeley talkgroup, and then switch to Dorchester/Colleton, and then switch to Beaufort/Jasper. It doesn't switch often, meaning within seconds or minutes, but may change every few hours. This is used because dispatcher availability fluctuates at different times. If there is only one dispatcher for a troop on duty, they will patch the talkgroups together to make it easier to manage radio traffic.
If you're not set up for patching, you may be missing traffic. I don't know what radio you're using, but my GRE PSR-500 family of radios and Whistler WS-1080 support this feature by default. If I'm monitoring the SCHP Spartanburg talkgroup, but it's patched with the Greenville talkgroup, I'll see "patch" in the display of my scanner. If you're not sure, program in the SCHP Beaufort/Jasper talkgroup and listen to all three Troop 6 dispatch talkgroups. See if you hear more traffic.
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shajoe44
Member
To add to what Brian said, I am pretty sure that all traffic stops are called in over the air for safety reasons. They then have the ability to either run driver info on their laptops or over the air. But definitely make sure your scanner has the "patch" feature. If it doesn't then make sure you enter ALL talkgroups assigned to the particular Troop you are monitoring. I monitor Troop 2 and Troop 7. They always use a Patch talkgroup because of being dispatched from a central location that encompasses many counties. And you are also correct Brian in your assumption of less troopers on the road. It's amazing how the numbers have been reduced over the years. 15 years ago my little county had 9 troopers assigned just to it. Now I think I have 6 or 7 troopers covering a 3 county area. At times there maybe only 1 or 2 troopers working. Lot of area for 2 troopers to cover.
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