IPMBA News

First Swiss Bike Police Conference

by Roger Pfister
Swiss Bike Police Team

In the late 90’s, I was inspired by the TV series Pacific Blue to use the bicycle for police patrols in Switzerland, too.  As a passionate biker, I was immediately fascinated by this new kind of police patrol and its applications.  In 2000, I contacted the Los Angeles Police Department to request to complete a basic bike police course with them.

Shortly thereafter, Don Hudson, then an IPMBA board member, invited me to an LAPD/IPMBA Police Cyclist Course. 

This was the beginning of the success story of the Bike Police Switzerland, but it took awhile to achieve the breakthrough.  Previously, I had to convince my superiors.  This was not easy at that time.  Cops on bikes, and to make matters worse, cops wearing shorts, were unimaginable in many Swiss police corps.  In addition, the fact that instruction should be necessary met with even more incomprehension, since Switzerland is considered a country of bikers where every kid learns how to ride a bike.

I was ridiculed by some colleagues and particularly by my superiors for my idea of bike police patrols, and I even was prevented in the implementation.  So, in the very early years, some colleagues and I used our leisure time to actively promote bike police patrols.  We organized courses and provided information to interested colleagues using our own website and our own time.  I attended IPMBA Conferences in 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005, to continue to develop my own skills and network with other IPMBA members.    

In 2010 a friend of mine wrote a federal diploma work about the benefits and the required training of bike police patrols.  Fortunately, the Swiss Police Institute (SPI) took note of this paper and became interested in our courses. 

With authority of the SPI we conducted bike police courses throughout Switzerland from 2011 on.  We were able to optimize our courses in terms of the announcement and registration procedure and we also professionalized the content.  The SPI funded my participation in the 2014 IPMBA Conference, with my colleague Reto Luethi, and again in 2015. 

At the same time we expanded the training team staff from five to nine policemen.  The team is currently made up of experienced police bikers, trainers and officers of various Swiss police corps from different language regions.  The different languages make communication difficult in the training team as well during the courses, but are unquestionably a gain for us all.

From the 4th May to the 8th May 2015, we hosted the first Swiss bike police conference.  The experience we gained from the IPMBA conferences served us for planning the course and the program.  We offered a basic course, an advanced course, and an instructor course in two languages (German and French).  The courses are based on the IPMBA course content but are customized for the Swiss Police.  In addition, we carried out an additional training day with different workshops.

Amongst others, we were happy to welcome the mountain bike and trials legend Hans “No Way” Rey.  The training with Hans was very instructive and, of course, a highlight for every mountain biker.  Other workshop topics were Bicycle Response Teams and BLS, including CPR. The conference was held in a military training premise in Kreuzlingen on Lake Constance.  Among the approximately 50 participants we also welcomed colleagues from France and the Netherlands.

I really hope that we also will be able to welcome participants from the United States at next year’s conference, which will take place May 23-27, 2016.

More information can be found on Facebook: Bike Police Switzerland.

Roger has been a policeman since 1995.  He has worked in various Swiss police corps and in various capacities.  Since 2006, he has been working as an Sergeant in the instruction service of the police of the Canton Bern.  In 2001, he founded Bike Police Switzerland and as a technical director he is responsible for the course content.  Since 2001, he has attended several conferences of the IPMBA, such as 2014 in Tampa and 2015 in Chandler.  He can be reached at pprr@police.be.ch

(c) 2015 IPMBA.  This article appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of IPMBA News. 

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