Port Lavaca PD rolls out new bike patrol program
The Port Lavaca Police Department recently began training with a new bicycle program. Pictured, from left, are: Det. Josh Smith, PLPD Officer Marion Hetherington and PLPD Officer Lance Orsak. (Kayla Meyer/Wave photo)
By KAYLA MEYER, the Port Lavaca Wave, August 29, 2014
More than a year in the making, the Port Lavaca Police Department will be ready to roll out its new bicycle program this weekend.
“The police department is starting a bike patrol,” said Det. Josh Smith with PLPD. “It’s something new for the city of Port Lavaca.”
Smith is one of three officers currently participating in the new program. The other officers are Lance Orsak and Marion Hetherington.
“Basically, we’re having a special unit from our patrol division,” Smith said. “And we’re taking a school on bike patrol, and a lot of it has to do with maintenance of the bike, maneuvers, things like making slow-type turns, things that will be useful in a crowd, the mechanics of a bike, the best way to get off and on in a hurry, things like that.”
PLPD Chief James Martinez said the department has been working for more than a year now to obtain the bicycles. The department was awarded a grant in Oct. 2013 in the amount of $97,000. Funds from the grant provide everything needed for the program, Martinez added.
“We were able to acquire bikes and provide training from a grant we received. I have to credit (PLPD officer) Heather Montgomery for obtaining the grant, the grant writer. She pursued the grant and did all the work necessary to secure it,” Martinez said.
Training, Smith said, was provided by the Victoria Police Department, which already deploys a bicycle patrol. Smith said training began last Wednesday and continued through the weekend. He added that the PLPD patrol will be operational in time for the upcoming Labor Day activities in Port Lavaca.
“I know for sure we’re going to be using them at the Flip Flop Festival coming up. That’s probably going to be our first actual use of the patrol, but we may use it before then,” Smith said.
The department received the bikes and all equipment in March 2014. The main piece of gear used by officers are the bicycles themselves. Martinez said the department received 10 police mountain bicycles with all of the gear needed to operate and maintain them.
“Each one of these bikes is handmade, and they’re high performance bikes. They are made for law enforcement. It may look like the average bike, but it’s got a lot of the mechanisms and gearing that are high performance,” Smith added.
In addition to providing patrols at festivals, the bicycles will be used throughout the city on a regular basis, Smith said.
“We’re going to use them for neighborhood patrols, definitely festivals, parades, stuff like that – anywhere we want the officer to have easier access and some places where a vehicle can’t always go,” Smith said. “With the officers being in a neighborhood on a bike, he can also do more of a thorough scan of a neighborhood, but the number one goal is just being more accessible to the public.”
The main goal of the bike patrol program is to connect with members of the public, both Smith and Martinez said.
“For Port Lavaca, it means a greater opportunity for the public to reconnect with police officers,” Martinez said. “One of greatest things to happen in law enforcement was the automobile. It allowed officers to respond faster and carry more equipment, but the downside was it took police officers away from that one-on-one contact with the citizens. These bikes will give us an opportunity to reconnect with the public.”
“With the officer being on the bike, he’s more accessible to the public than being in a car and just driving,” Smith added.
While out on patrol, officers will work on a two-man team, Smith said, adding that there are plans to expand the program in the future beyond the initial three officers.
Smith said that if officers pursue a crime while on their bicycles, they will be able to radio for backup if needed.
“It’s surprising how mobile the bikes are,” Smith said. “We can definitely take suspects down if we need to, but secondly, we have our radios. We just radio the nearest patrol car to come meet us. So, if we had a struggle with someone, we would take them down, detain them, handcuff them and call the patrol car to come and load them up and take them to jail for us.”
“It’s basically like a foot patrol except it’s more mobile and faster. It gives you the access of what a foot patrol would, but you have the mechanical advantage of a bike.”
In addition to the bicycles, other equipment provided by the grant includes all of the items officers will need to perform their duties such as helmets, uniforms, gloves and specialty glasses as well as the tools to maintain the bicycles, pedal guards, decals and cargo bags on the bicycles and a lighting system, Smith said.
“We have bike locks for when an officer is going to be out on a call for a specific amount of time, pedal guards, all the gear that’s on the bike, also the lighting system. We have the headlights. They’re LEDs and we also have the red and blue emergency lights, and we also have them on the back (and front),” Smith said. “The bike meets all the standards that Texas requires.”
“And we pretty much have a mechanic shop for the bikes set up inside the PD also,” Orsak added. “The little room has the bike stands and the locks in there.”
The grant also allowed PLPD was to purchase a fully equipped Chevy Tahoe with grant funds for the program, Martinez said.
“We got the Tahoe, the bike racks for that and the emergency lighting for that vehicle,” Smith added.
All of the officers said they were happy about the new program.
“We want to be more accessible to the community where they can come up, ask us questions and just make a team with the community because when we do that because it makes an awesome team with the public and the officers work together. I think that’s our number one goal,” Smith said. “We’re excited to implement it.”