BPD teaches importance of policing by bike
By Kelsey Stewart, Bellevue (NE) Leader, June 1, 2016
Photo by Kelsey Stewart:Lt. Jay Kirwan of the Bellevue Police Department rides a mountain bike through an obstacle course set up at the Bellevue Fire Training Center. The department hosted a four-day bike course for officers from various law enforcement agencies.
When nine law enforcement officers came to Bellevue last week with mountain bikes in tow, they were a little shaky.
Some hadn’t been on a bike since they were kids.
But after learning some bicycling basics, they were hopping up knee-high obstacles, crossing narrow bridges and even cycling upstairs.
And that was after only two days of the Bellevue Police Department’s four-day Policing by Mountain Bike course.
The department has been offering the course since 2004 and since then, between 200 and 250 law enforcement officers have been certified, said Lt. Jay Kirwan of the Bellevue Police Department.
Being able to offer the course to other officers is rewarding for Kirwan.
“Teaching is rewarding in general when you see them progress,” Kirwan said. “What’s neat about bicycling is how fast they learn. You see people coming in the first day really shaky. On day one, they haven’t been on a bike since elementary school. In two training days, it’s fun to watch these students progress.”
The course started as a way to teach Bellevue officers how to police by mountain bike, but it has since grown to be offered to neighboring law enforcement agencies. Participants have come from as far as Colorado for the certification course.
This year, the nine participants come from the Bellevue, Council Bluffs and Broken Bow police departments and the Hall County Sheriff’s Department.
In the first two days of the course, the focus is solely on cycling basics — how to get on and off, maintain balance. Then, they work up to obstacles — jumping up to things, crossing narrow bridges and even cycling up stairs.
The final two days focus on the law enforcement aspect of things.
“We really want to get everybody to the point where the bike becomes part of their body. It becomes second nature,” Kirwan said.
“The forefront is doing our job and keeping everybody safe.”
Bicycling offers many advantages to officers and their departments — stealth, use of additional senses, and health and morale boosts.
“People don’t necessarily expect a police officer to be on a bike. You can make contact before they realize who you are,” Kirwan said. “It’s a change of pace where you can get out of the cruiser and wake up a little bit. It gives you kind of a boost.”
Policing on a bicycle has a lot of advantages, but it also leaves officers a little more vulnerable and without the sense of protection offered by a cruiser.
“To a certain degree, it’s a false sense of security,” Kirwan said of the cruiser.
“But sometimes you feel a little more vulnerable. Like anything else we do, you just deal with that.”
A main perk of bicycling is officers are more approachable when they’re out of their cruisers.
“You’re isolated in a cruiser. You’re closed in and not able to have conversations,” Kirwan said. “This let’s you get a lot more face time with the public and it leads to a lot more interaction so we can be in touch with what people need.”
One reason they’re more approachable is the gear. Bicycles are familiar and not as intimidating as a patrol car.
“Everybody learns how to ride a bike,” Kirwan said. “Not everybody has been around a patrol car with all the gear and equipment. It puts people at ease.”
Bicycle uniforms vary slightly from regular ones. Officers wear a stretchy bike pant and a breathable polo shirt. They have a choice of a traditional duty belt or an exterior vest.
During the day shift, officers often patrol neighborhoods on their bicycles, leading to more contact with children and families.
“They love seeing an officer out on a mountain bike in their neighborhood,” Kirwan said. “You’re not going to have an officer ride by on a bike and not have a positive interaction.”
Riding through neighborhoods leads to more productive conversations with Bellevue residents, too. It can be difficult, Kirwan said, for people to call police with an issue or concern.
“They’re worried it’s not important enough or they’re bothering us,” he said. “If they see an officer out on a bike, it’s a perfect opportunity to approach us.”
Kirwan estimated that about two-thirds of Bellevue officers are bicycle certified.
“Anybody who raises their hand and says, ‘I want to use that tool,’ can,” he added.
Several neighboring agencies use bicycles for patrol and special events, including police departments in Ralston, Papillion and Plattsmouth as well as the Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office.
The bikes are another tool for officers and Kirwan sees them like any other law enforcement resource.
“If somebody is comfortable with it, has been trained with it and has had success with it, they’re encouraged to use it more,” he said. “If they’ve made a useful arrest or stopped people from breaking into cars, it encourages the officers to use the bike when they just know they never would have made that arrest. Instead, it would have been a day shift officer taking a report for a break in.”