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Mr. Rogerson's Neighborhood

Newly certified IPMBA Police Cyclist is making an impact in his community

by Kevin Rogerson

Ed's Note: Kevin is a police constable and police cyclist in Northumbria, in the northeast of England. He was certified as an IPMBA Police Cyclist (PC) in March 2004 and is hoping to attend the IPMBA Instructor Course in 2005. He has been a driving force behind the implementation of cycle patrols in his area, and as the following stories demonstrate, his efforts are having a positive impact in his community.

14 May 2004…A while ago I managed to secure £1,500 from Orange Mobile Phones in order to buy some good quality mountain bikes for some of the kids in care on my patch. The idea was to set them a challenge - the Coast to Coast bike ride. This is a national cycle route which starts on the west side of England at Whitehaven and finishes on the east coast at Tynemouth, which is in my Area Command. This is only 150 miles but there is some tough climbing across the Lake District.

We finally did the ride three weeks ago; it took us three days with two kids from care. We were aiming to raise sponsorship for two of the special needs schools in Whitley Bay and it looks like we've raised about £1,500. The bikes will now go to a local charity which specialises in taking kids into the outdoors.

On the first day we were just an hour into the ride when I got involved in an arrest using the mountain bike. I had stayed with 13-year-old Damien and his social worker whilst the other group were about 300m up the disused railway line that is part of the route. About 200m in front of us was a bridge over the track with a police van parked on it. I saw a large sports motorbike with three teenagers on it, driving down the track towards us. Had to be stolen! I got off my bike and, put the bike sideways in front of me (remembering the IPMBA training!) and signalled for the motorbike to stop. It slowed down to walking pace as it approached and tried to slip by, so I moved my bike over to block. The motorbike hit my bike and luckily just snapped my pump bracket. I ordered the two pillion passengers to get off and sit on the ground - which they did without a word (it turned out this was their first time in trouble). The ride was a bit more vocal but when I explained that I was a police officer he calmed down. The local officers came down from their van and took them away. The bike had been stolen four days earlier. So that was good start to the journey. Little Damien thought that was quite cool...

11 August 2004…I've just had an excellent lock-up on the bike which I want to use to the bike patrol's advantage. A male befriended four ten-year old boys over a period of three days and masturbated in front of them. Depending on how the video interviews go with the kids, it may be quite a high profile case as the male is the head of a department at one of the local universities. He is also a runner who specialises in 10K runs.

We've had a male who has been masturbating in people's back gardens in my area over the last six years. He has never been caught, although a team did get close to him one night when they had observations on a house that the offender had been targeting. They saw him in the garden and chased after him.

Unfortunately, he escaped by jumping a five-foot fence and then - get this! - waiting for the officer to catch up and then, as the officer reached the fence to jump over it - punching him in the face and running off. We came to the conclusion that this male was a super fit runner who knew all the back tracks and was using them to his advantage. The man I arrested fits this offender and is previously unknown to us. He is in the running club that has a 400m track which backs onto the rear of the victims' gardens!

Trouble is, we have no evidence that we can link him to these historic offences. We'll see what happens with him….

Kevin can be reached at ssmkpr@yahoo.co.uk.

© 2004 IPMBA. This article appeared in the Fall 2004 issue of IPMBA News.