There's not a lot of traffic; I suspect that they are also using MDTs.
In all of my experience Troops hardly ever call out traffic stops or what they're doing, everything is done through their computer and it displays all of their activity on the dispatchers end. When they run someone, mark out on traffic, etc. the dispatcher can see it all so they're in the know, eliminating the need for radio traffic in most instances. The Trooper can even clear their status checks without dispatcher intervention.
Another reason why radio may not be widely used.. Our radio system is so garbage the phone is far more reliable than the radio and the early generation of panorama 4-in-1 combination antennas (GPS/WiFi/4G LTE/7-800MHz) that DPS has installed are absolutely horrible. They have a design flaw so bad that Troopers can literally transmit on their 3 watt handheld and get into the system places where their 30 watt mobile can't. Combine that with a radio system already struggling to cover half of their assigned jurisdiction.
Since Troopers do travel across the state and work different assignments that means they use a lot of different radio systems. If their experience is that the phone works 99 percent of the time and the radio is hit or miss, they're going to use that phone because they know if they need help at least that phone is going to work. All of our Troops have PTToC phones they carry on their uniform, it pretty much replaces their radios.
