Wilkes-Barre police get 6 bicycles for new Bike Patrol Division
By STEVE MOCARSKY, The Citizens Voice, April 4, 2024
Photo: Sheridan demonstrates one of the bike's lights. Sean McKeag / Staff Photographer
WILKES-BARRE — Mayor George Brown and police Chief Joseph Coffay announced Thursday the creation of a Bike Patrol Division in the police department and unveiled six new e-bicycles they said will enhance community policing efforts.
The e-bikes, which were displayed at a news conference at police headquarters, come equipped with red and blue flashing lights, sirens, heavy-duty tires, full-pedal, motor-assisted pedaling or full-motor options, heavy-duty tires and other features.
Diamond City Partnership and the Luzerne Foundation paid for the bikes, splitting the approximately $24,000 cost evenly.
Brown thanked Dave Pedri, executive director of the nonprofit Luzerne Foundation, and Larry Newman, executive director of DCP, Wilkes-Barre’s nonprofit downtown management organization, for their help.
“They were expensive; they were about $4,000 per bike. To save the city that money, we reached out to Dave and to Larry and said, we need your help,” Brown said.
Visibility, accessibility
Pedri said he formed an opinion while working in the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office that the city police department “was one of the finest law enforcement agencies I ever worked with, and they still are. And I commend them for trying to change the narrative and get out into the community and work with people and take away the barrier of the car. That’s what these bikes are doing.”
Newman said the DCP’s first goal is to ensure downtown Wilkes-Barre is perceived as — and is — clean, safe and beautiful. And while the organization works hard to make the downtown clean and beautiful, it relies on the leadership of and partnership with the police department to make it safe.
“When we had the opportunity to work with them, to be able to give them another tool that we personally feel is absolutely critical in increasing their visibility and their mobility and, quite honestly, their accessibility to the public, we as a board jumped at that opportunity,” Newman said.
Return on investment
Brown told Newman and Pedri they would soon see the benefit of their investment.
“You’re going to see police officers … not just downtown, but throughout the city, on bicycles patrolling. It’s going to be a pure community policing effort,” Brown said, getting an acknowledgement from community policing Sgt. Jamie Sheridan, who demonstrated the lights and sirens on the bikes.
Coffay said the initiative is an example of a partnership between the business community and the police department.
“The police can’t do things alone. It takes a whole community for us to go out there and do what we need to do, so I want to personally thank them,” Coffay said.
Coffay said bike patrols will enhance current community policing efforts that include foot patrols and police substations throughout the city.
Bike patrol officers will have advantages of being able to see, hear and smell things better than officers in patrol vehicles, respond to situations more quickly and “get off the bike and talk to people, which is very important,” Coffay said.
Brown noted that the bicycles will enable officers “to get into areas that they couldn’t do with a police car — between buildings and tight areas like that in the neighborhoods.”
More police presence
“We’re very aggressive about the new community policing that Sgt. Sheridan will be leading and a very heavy presence that we’re going to have in the neighborhoods and the downtown and make the people feel safe with their presence,” Brown said.
Coffay said several officers are excited about the patrol and expressed interest in joining it. He said the bike patrol positions will be posted internally and, after officers are selected, a representative of the bike manufacturer — Indiana-based Recon Police Power Bikes — will come to the city to train them on use and care of the e-bikes. And, the department still has to acquire some equipment that will be part of the bike patrol uniform.
After all that is accomplished, bike patrols should be hitting the streets with another few months, he said.
The chief said a company representative told him any reputable bicycle repair shop can maintain or repair the e-bikes.
Council support
Brown said it was important that third-term city councilman Tony Brooks and new council members Jessica McClay and Stan Mirin were present “to see that we are investing more and more in our police department.”
Brown thanked Brooks for his support over the last four years in helping his administration secure funding for the police and fire departments.
“With our new council members, we hope you’re going to continue that. I know your heart is in the same (place) ours is, to provide police and fire with the best equipment and the best training that we can,” Brown said.