Department of Public Safety (TX)

The Texas Department of Public Safety (otherwise known as DPS), is a state law enforcement agency responsible for "enforcing laws, administering regulatory programs, managing records, educating the public, and managing emergencies, both directly and through interaction with other agencies."

Texas DPS is divided into 6 Regions, with multiple Communications Centers for each region. The regional headquarters are in:

• Dallas (Reg. 1)
• Houston (Reg. 2)
• Weslaco (Reg. 3)
• El Paso (Reg. 4)
• Lubbock (Reg. 5)
• San Antonio (Reg. 6)
• State Capitol (Rgn. 7)
• Austin (State Headquarters)

According to a press release dated 10/21/2010, the DPS will close communications centers in Sherman, Texas City, Beaumont, Ozona, San Angelo, Childress and Harlingen.

Within the past few years DPS has migrated all of its radio systems to a conventional P25 digital protocol, which is capable of linking any Comm Center in the state to any other by VoIP, essentially giving any trooper the ability to talk to any other, statewide. DPS also has networked 5 facilities into the Harris County Regional Radio System (Texas SCIP p. 28) and two facilities into the City of Austin/Travis County Regional Radio System (Texas SCIP p. 28).

The SCIP has stated, on page 28, that DPS "will migrate toward a statewide hybrid trunked radio system utilizing 700MHz where feasible," accessible by all state agencies. The THP Strategic Outlook from the DPS website, also shows that this is the current plan, on page 44.

DPS uses linked repeaters and base stations at many Comm Centers. When dispatchers 
transmit, they may be broadcasting over many linked sites at once, while the 
trooper is only being broadcasted on their local site. This limits a receiver to hear 
only the dispatch side of conversations at times. DPS also uses half-duplex on their 
base stations at times. In this case, the trooper will broadcast on a "Mobile to 
Base" frequency, while dispatch listens on this frequency. To respond dispatch 
transmits on a "Base to Mobile" frequency, while the trooper listens on that same 
frequency. This may also cause a receiver to only hear the dispatch side, since 
usually the dispatcher is broadcasting from a tall tower, relative to the trooper 
broadcasting from ground level. Reports have indicated that in the future more 
Base outputs will be rebroadcasting the "Mobile to Base" side of the conversation 
which has been noted on San Antonio's Base B1 recently. See below for a "working" 
list of linked sites.
 

On 1 November 2018, DPS began using a new alphanumeric unit numbering system.

Divisions

The Department of Public Safety is comprised of 8 Divisions:

• Administration
• Criminal Law Enforcement
• Director's Staff
• Texas Division of Emergency Management
• Driver License
• Public Safety Commission
• Texas Highway Patrol
  • Commercial Vehicle Enforcement
  • Communications

  Criminal Law Enforcement

  

  Texas DPS Criminal Law Enforcement Seal

  The CLE division consists of 1,239 personnel, including 625 commissioned officers and 614 support personnel.CLE is split into 5 units:

  • Criminal Intelligence Service
  • Motor Vehicle Theft Service
  • Narcotics Service
  • Bureau of Information Analysis
  • Crime Laboratory Service

  The CLE Chief also oversees the DPS SWAT team which is comprised of 20 commissioned officers from all DPS services.

  

  Texas Division of Emergency Management

  Texas Division of Emergency Management

  The Division of Emergency Management is the statewide commssion responsible for disaster preparedness. They report directly to the Governor of the State of Texas. They are the state agency responsible for coordinating the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) and homeland security preparedness drills.

  The DEM has split the state into disaster districts and sub-districts. That map is available here.

  Texas Highway Patrol

  Otherwise known as "troopers" or "THP," the Highway Patrol is the most visible division of DPS, tasked with enforcing traffic laws on Texas highways.

  

  Texas Highway Patrol Patch

  

  DPS Communications Seal

  Commercial Vehicle Enforcement (CVE)

  The CVE Unit of THP is the enforcement unit of commercial vehicle traffic, ensuring all weight/size regulations are followed, ensuring compliance with the Motor Carrier Safety Act. They also ensure hazardous material placarding regulations are followed, as well as commercial vehicle registration enforcement. There are 41 CVE Offices throughout the state, including 2 at El Paso's Bridge of the America's POE and the Ysleta POE.

  Communications and DPS Unit Numbers

  There are 32 Communications facilities throughout the state as well as one mobile unit, the Communications Emergency Operations Team, which is supported by Command One, a 30 ft. mobile communications trailer. See the linked press release above, for a list of Comm Centers that will be closing, reducing the number down to 22.

  Texas DPS Unit Numbers

  Highway Patrol Units begin with the region number, then the letter denoting the district, then 3 or 4 numbers after that.

  For example, 2A604 would be a Highway Patrol unit from Region 2 (Houston) District A (Houston), then the remaining numbers denote the individual unit. Units that end in 00 (for example 2A600) appear to be sergeants.

  Three digit numbers appear to be lieutenants, captains, majors.

  DPS Aircraft are three digit numbers beginning with 1, the last number denotes the region. For example, 102 and 112 are helicopters based in Region 2, Houston.

  Detectives, (CID and Rangers), are identified by a four digit number beginning with an 8. The second number denotes the region, and the third and fourth numbers identify the individual unit. For example, 8738 would be a detective (probably CID) working out of region 7-Capitol Police

  Four digit numbers beginning with a 9 are communications technicians (for example 9162).

  Texas Rangers

  

  Texas Ranger Crest

  The Rangers are famed as the oldest law enforcement agency in the country with statewide jurisdiction. Currently, there are 144 commissioned officers, by state congressional act, and they are split into 7 troops "A-G."
  

  Recently there have been signs that the Rangers are reorganizing and downsizing to 6 troops.

  Maps

  • Texas Highway Patrol & Commercial Vehicle Enforcement districts (.pdf)
  • Texas Rangers company areas (.jpg)
  • TXDPS.zip - Contains a Google Earth .kml map of Texas Dept. of Public Safety communications sites.