MSP Patch

[jason_58201]

I noticed recently that Minnesota State Patrol (MSP) Has had Thief River Falls, Detroit Lakes, and Saint Cloud Patched together 24/7. In the past I know that DL and TRF would be patched together at night and on the weekends, but adding Saint Cloud to the mix and during the day, is making for some busy chatter. Anyone else noticed this with other districts and as to why they are doing it?

 

[jaspence]

I know of at least one small town in Michigan that used a patch with their old 4xx system due to lack of funds for P25 radios. With a P25 HT costing $2000 or more, many small departments don't have the budget for these expenses.

 

[jason_58201]

I know of at least one small town in Michigan that used a patch with their old 4xx system due to lack of funds for P25 radios. With a P25 HT costing $2000 or more, many small departments don't have the budget for these expenses.

I guess I made a bad assumption that everyone would know what I was talking about. When I say that MSP has Detroit Lakes, St. Cloud and Thief River Falls patched together, I should have noted for anyone not familiar with how the MSP is laid out, is that each of those three cities are the district headquarters for each State Patrol District. Once upon a time they also served as the state patrol dispatch center for their district. Since ARMER went fully online State Ptatrol is now dispatched at a central location. When I mention these three cities, when in context to talking State Patrol, these cities are synonymous with their respective district. I apologize for any confusion. What we are talking about here is all state patrol units of central and western, and northwestern MN patched on one channel. It's not unusual per say, but it is in the ops of MN State Patrol.

 

[unclebubba]

A couple months ago I kept hearing MSP Virginia on the 2700 Duluth channel. I'm not up there often enough to listen more for details, but I'm still wondering why. Sounds like the same situation.

 

[ofd8001]

I expect it is an issue of staffing in the dispatch office. Just throwing out random numbers as I don't know how many dispatchers they have. . .

During the busiest of hours they have 6 dispatchers on duty but on slow times they may have 5. So to make up for that "empty" dispatch position, they will patch/combine districts accordingly.

I imagine it is easier/less confusing to patch MSP talkgroups such as Detroit Lakes Main, Thief River Main and St. Cloud Main together as opposed to having troopers switch their radios to a given talkgroup. With troopers having staggering, different schedules, it might be difficult for an on-coming trooper to know which talkgroup he/she should select on their radio.

 

[sonm10]

Somewhat an related issue, a month ago I noticed the console id's had rotated from st cloud, Detroit Lakes, thief River Falls, Mankato, and Marshall.

 

[wogggieee]

A couple months ago I kept hearing MSP Virginia on the 2700 Duluth channel. I'm not up there often enough to listen more for details, but I'm still wondering why. Sounds like the same situation.

They've been doing this for awhile. They were for sure when I was going to Hibbing on a regular basis three or for years ago. It's likely because of staffing and low traffic volume.

 

[wogggieee]

I imagine it is easier/less confusing to patch MSP talkgroups such as Detroit Lakes Main, Thief River Main and St. Cloud Main together as opposed to having troopers switch their radios to a given talkgroup. With troopers having staggering, different schedules, it might be difficult for an on-coming trooper to know which talkgroup he/she should select on their radio.

This is done in the metro quite often as well. Washington county will often tie their north and south dispatch channels and ramsey county will often have their three mains tied together in some combination.

 

[jason_58201]

Prove me wrong. It's really ridiculous for MN to have State Patrol Dispatch when 911s go to the closest county (or are supposed to) and almost every county is on ARMER and has the ability to "all call" troopers. Why not just do away with state patrol dispatch and let each counties do it. It's not like in NoDak where in theory the whole state can be dispatched from Bismarck and realistically half the state already is dispatched from Bismarck.

 

[bearcatrp]

Have been up by duluth and baxter area camping and still pick up st cloud state patrol and local PD on armer.

 

[stmills]

The patching of mains has been growing with the number of agencies growing at some PSAPs. Not uncommon to hear on Ramsey County 2 or 3 main tied together for a break to take place. It is very common to see mains patched for some of the big EMS dispatch centers. I find this a much better model than the Minneapolis Model that switches precincts from 1 main to another based on the time of day. This made sense when you had dedicated frequencies but when they moved to ARMER each precinct should have gotten it own main talkgroup and then tie them together as call volume and staffing dictates.

 

[peq387ab]

MSP has been very light on Dispatchers and the goal to mitigate that is by patching TRF DL and St. Cloud together until they are fully staffed again with dispatchers. That’s what I got from talking with a trooper friend I know that they are struggling to hire dispatchers.

 

[ofd8001]

Prove me wrong. It's really ridiculous for MN to have State Patrol Dispatch when 911s go to the closest county (or are supposed to) and almost every county is on ARMER and has the ability to "all call" troopers. Why not just do away with state patrol dispatch and let each counties do it. It's not like in NoDak where in theory the whole state can be dispatched from Bismarck and realistically half the state already is dispatched from Bismarck.

I'd say it's all about politics and control. A statewide agency would be very reluctant to give up control of its dispatching operation. Also, a trooper assigned to Polk County may be assigned to assist a trooper in an adjacent county. So maintaining "dispatch control" and records management functions may be challenging. Which county carries the incident on its CAD, etc.

The patching of mains has been growing with the number of agencies growing at some PSAPs. Not uncommon to hear on Ramsey County 2 or 3 main tied together for a break to take place. It is very common to see mains patched for some of the big EMS dispatch centers. I find this a much better model than the Minneapolis Model that switches precincts from 1 main to another based on the time of day. This made sense when you had dedicated frequencies but when they moved to ARMER each precinct should have gotten it own main talkgroup and then tie them together as call volume and staffing dictates.

This might fall into "well, we've always done it this way" situation. I remember as a kid back in the late 1960s where MPD would tell squads that they are changing dispatch plan and for third and fifth to use channel 1, etc.

But I absolutely agree with you - it would be easier to patch talkgroups than to have cops do the switching. There's always someone that doesn't get the word and is on the wrong channel, when he/she calls for help.