I live in region 4 and I would like to know if their is any way we can know the name of the trooper who is assigned to to the unit number or is this not public information.
Trooper Unit Numbers
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davidbond21
Member
There are a few ways:
-By listening very carefully and constantly, you should be able to start picking up names, but they will likely be only first names, and few and far between at that. The next method will yield quicker results.
-Drive fast(not too fast) through one of these troopers speed traps, receive your warning/citation, then look at their name and badge number. One down, the rest of the region to go. The next method is much slower, but the most effective.
-Get a job in law enforcement, work the 3 or so years before you can apply to DPS, become a trooper, request/receive Highway Patrol duty in your home county/area, show up for work and receive your phone list complete with names/numbers/badge#/other miscellaneous info.
Sorry for the smartassery, but all these methods work to one degree or another(based on my personal experiences). I wouldn't recommend using the second method, though it's fine if your friends do it; just ask to see their ticket(s) afterwards and copy down the name and badge number. Otherwise, no, this isn't considered public information.
-By listening very carefully and constantly, you should be able to start picking up names, but they will likely be only first names, and few and far between at that. The next method will yield quicker results.
-Drive fast(not too fast) through one of these troopers speed traps, receive your warning/citation, then look at their name and badge number. One down, the rest of the region to go. The next method is much slower, but the most effective.
-Get a job in law enforcement, work the 3 or so years before you can apply to DPS, become a trooper, request/receive Highway Patrol duty in your home county/area, show up for work and receive your phone list complete with names/numbers/badge#/other miscellaneous info.
Sorry for the smartassery, but all these methods work to one degree or another(based on my personal experiences). I wouldn't recommend using the second method, though it's fine if your friends do it; just ask to see their ticket(s) afterwards and copy down the name and badge number. Otherwise, no, this isn't considered public information.
Trooper ID
Thamks I don't need or want your help AW
Thamks I don't need or want your help AW
He may have been a little too smartass on that one, but he is right. You either have to work with them or come into contact with them in their duties to know all their names. Personally, I think that it is not public information for good reason. They are police officers that are out there protecting us, our property, and our roadways, and they do not need an invasion of their privacy, no matter how small it may seem. If you do come across a slew of names and badges, I would hope that you keep it to yourself. Good day.
pitcockm
Member
A troopers badge number has nothing to do with his radio unit number...
There is a thread talking about what the radio unit number means....but it is nothing to do with his/her badge number.
There is a thread talking about what the radio unit number means....but it is nothing to do with his/her badge number.
davidbond21
Member
Well, as far as all the tickets I have received or seen, the "Badge #" listed on the citation has coincided with the unit's radio call number. I realize there is a difference between the two(and also the information contained within TX DPS #'s), but again, I was referencing what seems to be common to my area, and was using the term loosely or should I say, as it has been applied in my experience, but I will concede it's been many a year since I involuntarily contributed to DPS, so I couldn't say with certainty if the same holds true for their citations, which is more relevant to the immediate discussion. If it's not, then that's the shame I get for ass-uming something in a public forum.
Rattler has a very poignant point in that you(the OP) should be extremely careful what you do with the collection of this type of data. Having a list of officer's names and other info researched on them won't endear you to any law enforcement agency. I have some names of officers, but that is because I've met them and I listen for them on the scanner. Of all the tickets that I mentioned, I was never interested in names, but unit numbers. From a warning my old roommate received, I was able to figure out what agency a set of unit numbers on a county system belonged to. Logging unit numbers and districts is not eroding any of these officers privacy when they call them out all day long over the air, and if they were to see me with a list of the same in my hand I'd tell them exactly that(but in a much politer way). I might even have a salient point about that, but these same officers would probably not feel that way about me having a list of all their names though.
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texasemt13
CenTex DBA
New Braunfels PD happens to use their badge numbers as their radio callsign so that works as both on the ticket (as well as Comal Cty and Hays Cty). However, San Marcos PD uses a radio callsign system based on their district for that night, so writing their radio callsign wouldn't be useful; in this instance they use their badge number on tickets, to delineate the citing officer.
As for DPS, we'll wait for one of them to chime in. The last time I got a ticket from DPS I didn't have a digital scanner so I wouldn't know, though I suspect they don't use their radio callsign (I would doubt their "badge number" is identical to their radio callsign, but I've been wrong plenty of times before. My assumption is based on: What if they switch regions, departments or got promoted? Seems like an awful lot of badge number re-issuing when you could just reassign a callsign easily. I would think their badge number is issued at graduation from the academy and sticks with them for their entire service).
Again, we'll wait for one of Texas's finest to chime in.
davidbond21
Member
Different strokes for different folks I guess. Although it wouldn't be hard to track down who was working what district at what time. I'm sure you as a manager at your last job got to track down supervisors/guards to fill out witness statements by looking at where the incident occurred at what time/date, then looking at both work schedules and rotation sheets to figure out who was present and needs to fill out a statement.
texasemt13
CenTex DBA
Agreed, but then again the blank at the end of the ticket does say "Badge Number" and not "District" or "Callsign." We've shown that they can be two different things, so until a trooper actually chimes in, or until one of happens to get pulled over by a black and white, will we know.
Then upon a google image search I see the paper copy says "I.D. No." which could mean anything.
Waiting, like a dog for a bone.
davidbond21
Member
I wouldn't hold my breath. I would guess many agencies' citation books are more or less customized from some template by the company that makes them, just substituting in location/agency info, but most of the fields are pretty ubiquitous. Badge No/ID No seems like a pretty generic term that could be used for one of these fields, and it would be up to the individual agencies if they write their radio unit number or actual badge number or some other identifier in this field. That's all I meant when I said to look for the "badge #" on the ticket, but obviously we've established this isn't applicable to all areas.
My question about DPS citations is, since whatever county I'm pulled over in, when I go to that corresponding(precinct's) Justice of the Peace to pay the fine, that trooper's paperwork is going to have to go through that county's office. Since that's the case, wouldn't they use that county's citation format(if not the same type of book, all the same data fields and use the same notation) so that all this data written on the ticket would be entered into the main computer in the same way? And if that's true, it would stand to reason, at least in my area, that the troopers would use their radio unit number on the tickets like the rest of the county's LEO's do. OK, so now I've peaked my own interest on this.
I have seen troopers write a citation in a non-corresponding JP precinct before. It can be done, and I was told that it is for when one JP is overloaded, on vacation, or just downright more likely to make it stick. Remember, nothing is sacred in our society these days.
davidbond21
Member
This is a good point, but whether or not it is in a corresponding precinct or not, it will still be within the same county, which ostensibly would still be using the same notation format throughout for it's citations.
It's been a couple years since I got a ticket from a county LEO, and a few more since I received one from DPS within the same county(Comal), but each time I received both a citation from the little carbon-copy book that I had to sign, and then the officer also gave me a printed out sheet of paper, listing the different traffic infractions and their associated fines, and then it also listed the names of each J.P. and location, and the one I was supposed to go to was circled at that time by the officer, and they explained to me(pointing at that print-out) I need to go there to pay my fine or contest the charge.
So it seems like it wouldn't be a stretch for them to say, issue me a ticket right next to JP3(also I only live a mile away from there) but have my case assigned to JP2 way out in Bulverde so I get to make that drive all the way out there across the county, but I'm still within the Comal system, no different if I'd had my case assigned to any other precinct. But if I get a ticket up around the county line, they can't write me a ticket in Comal and my case be assigned to some JP in Hays(right?).
I realize that nothing is sacred anymore, and I am also aware that at some point my attempt to use logic to discern government operating procedures is bound to fail, but until someone in the know corrects me, it's all I have.
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texasemt13
CenTex DBA
That would suggest that some of these guys have more than one ticket book. I heard a few troopers on Texas Law 1 last night bouncing back and forth over the Hays/Comal Cty line on I-35. I also hear them doing the Blanco/Comal trip on US281. It would make sense that they might have more than one ticket book.
I recall my last DPS ticket being in Karnes Cty, but it was on some standard looking carbon copy with the DPS Seal, though I did have to deal with a Karnes Cty JP.
Again, nothing of real substance, but I'm not gonna be the first to find out firsthand which it is.
Radio numbers may be assigned to a district. I played softball with a number of DPS troopers in the 80's and knew their voices and numbers while listening to the scanner. Several of them transfered out or retired and it seemed their replacements would use the same unit numbers. YMMV
davidbond21
Member
Update:
OK, so since John hasn't piped in yet on this issue, I guess I will.
According to a deputy we both talked to the other night, he said that DPS has a statewide citation form that they use, not each county's like I was guessing.
This deputy also told us that the unit numbers the Troopers use on the radio are the same as their badge numbers. He even said that if a trooper moved to some other location or got promoted, his badge number would change to reflect this new position.
OK, so since John hasn't piped in yet on this issue, I guess I will.
According to a deputy we both talked to the other night, he said that DPS has a statewide citation form that they use, not each county's like I was guessing.
This deputy also told us that the unit numbers the Troopers use on the radio are the same as their badge numbers. He even said that if a trooper moved to some other location or got promoted, his badge number would change to reflect this new position.
knightrider
Member
The Deputy is wrong, the badge number is issued upon graduation, and stays the same until the Trooper moves from TLE to CLE etc, or begins a series of promotions. The "Unit Number" is maintained for the district, and sub-district. As for issuing the citations, they can be issued for any JP Court in a County, and if near a County Line, can be issued for the adjacent county. As for custodial arrest, and going from one county to another, they do not have to have the crook magistrated before transporting to another county, if it is an adjacent county (usually in the event of an outstanding Criminal Warrant, to include some traffic offenses). Most of this information is available on the Texas DPS website, but the individual Badge #'s, and who the unit # is assigned to is not. There is a lot of good reading there for those who are interested, as well as TCLEOSE, and the Attorney General's site. Just be prepared to spend some time, especially if you really want the true info, as it is intriguing.
nd5y
Member
Back in the 80's and early 90's the CLE units in Wichita Falls had 3 digit 8xx numbers. I don't know if that was for the whole state or what that would be now.
texasemt13
CenTex DBA
I've heard many 3 digit numbers. Here is my list:
100- DPS 100 Helo
107- DPS Helo?
113- DPS Helo?
116- DPS Helo?
204- unknown
333- unknown
529- unknown
84-1- (identified as "eighty four- one" which I thought unusual) unknown
948- unknown
I've asked this question many a time before, again if anyone has any insight it would be appreciated.
I bet (8041) eighty-fourty one is the Lazy dispatcher equivlent of Sulfer Springs Dispatcher calling (1051) units "One thousand fifty one"
Thanks Tom, that's a good possibility.
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