Silent guardians: PCPD launches Mountain Bike Patrol Unit as a means to displace crime in the city
By JEFF THOMPSON, The Saint Clair News Aegis, April 14, 2016
Pell City -- Last week, Officer Matt Delozier stopped his bicycle next to a woman in Lakeside Park. She was sitting on a bench along a path, enjoying the afternoon when he startled her with his arrival. She immediately started talking to him.
Delozier said it’s not common to hear a story like the one he did that morning, one about being assaulted in a place as peaceful and accommodating as Pell City’s park. But she told it, and afterward she thanked him.
“She said she was very glad to see us out there,” Dleozier said.
As of this week, the Pell City Police Department will has four of its patrol vehicles fully outfitted with new hitches and high-tech racks to carry mountain bikes, and by the end of the month seven officers will be trained to use them throughout the city. At almost any time of day, there’s a chance one will cruise past you on a trail, ride down a street in your neighborhood or greet you outside a local business.
Chief of Police Greg Turley said launching the initiative has more benefits than residents might think, but the most important is giving officers a chance to do what they signed up for — interact.
“I always say that the worst thing that ever happened to community policing was the invention of air conditioning,” he said. “When you’re in a patrol car with the windows up, there’s a wall between you and the people you protect.”
It’s common to hear law enforcement officers use the phrase, “We only get calls when something bad happens.” Of course, it’s not always the case, but the force currently interacts with members of the community about 15 times a day typically in response to times of need.
“Out of our patrol cars, we can be more engaged,” Turley said. “An officer on a bike can make 50 contacts a day, and 40 of them are positive. Imagine what that does for the community and for the soul of the officer. It’s influencing change.”
Delozier was selected to run PCPD’s Mountain Bike Patrol Unit for his experience and his love of the activity. He retired from the Anniston Police Department a little over a year ago after more than 21 years with the force and came to work at PCPD. On his off days, he rides 50-100 miles.
“That’s how I got nominated to be in charge of the program,” he said.
In Anniston, Delozier’s day was spent with a partner patrolling downtown. In that time, he said he learned there’s a need for these types of patrols in communities of all sizes.
“Having a mountain bike at an officer’s disposal enables them to get to areas they can’t reach in their patrol cars — and whole lot quicker than if they were on foot,” he said. “Plus, the visibility helps. People who see us providing an engaging presence presence builds community trust.”
Turley added though that the addition of the Mountain Bike Patrol Unit is meant for more than engagement. It’s also about enforcement. An easy example, he said, is that with two race weekends coming up this month the activity in the retail centers around the US 231 and I-20 intersection will increase, and that means more opportunities for people to feel like they can avoid consequence for their actions.
“You’ll see people cracking open cases of beer in the parking lot, throwing trash everywhere and others walking through the rows pulling car handles,” Turley said. “They can see a patrol car coming from a mile away, but they won’t always notice an officer on a bike.”
With all these benefits combined, the overall takeaway for residents should be crime prevention. A Mountain Bike Patrol in your neighborhood on a regular basis, a presence in your shopping centers, in downtown and along the trails at Lakeside Park means visibility —and visibility displaces criminal problems. As Turley said, if it’s no longer a safe place to participate in illegal activity without getting caught, people won’t do it there anymore.
“Instead of dealing with problems on the back end, we’re getting out ahead of them,” he said.