Indianapolis Police Department gains
tactical advantage through shared resources
by Officer Doug Johnson, PCI #377
Indianapolis PD (IN)The Midwestern
city of Indianapolis, Indiana, is at the center of the Hoosier State and
literally serves as "The Crossroads of America." Indy is the 12th largest
city in the United States, and the Indianapolis Police Department (IPD) and
the Marion County Sheriff's Department are charged with providing police
services to over 1.2 million residents. In the early 1990's, the IPD, like
many other police agencies, began to utilize bicycle-mounted officers in
its efforts to more effectively patrol its flourishing downtown business
and residential districts. The bike unit was formed and developed a positive
relationship with IPMBA, a relationship which we maintain and value to this
day. Much of this early progress was achieved under the guidance and counsel
of IPD Lieutenant Clarence White, Jr., PCI #211T. As the unit achieved success,
it began to grow. Today, bike officers patrol in each of the five IPD service
districts. With the increased demand for bike trained officers came an increased
need for IPMBA Instructors and internally administered Police Cyclist (PC)
courses, or "bike schools." The demands on and for bike officers became even
greater in the post-9/11 policing environment. Because of this increased
desire to have more bike-trained officers and a greater deployment of them
on the streets, we have determined that integrating the IPD PC courses with
other local police agencies was the best way to do business.
Currently, the IPD conducts three to four bike schools annually. Our common
practice is to fill the school with approximately 20 IPD officers and leave
ten slots open to officers from other area departments. We view this arrangement
as a "win-win" for all parties involved. The guest department(s) receive
the IPMBA PC course for their officers at no cost. The officers take home
skills, knowledge and certification gained from the bike school. They are
also are credited with valuable in-service training hours that are documented
and forwarded to their own training coordinators by the PC course lead
instructor. Recently, the IPD has begun incorporating Bike Response Group
(BRG) training into its bike schools. As a result, officers from the guest
agency also receive training in bike-mounted crowd control techniques.
The Indianapolis Police Department benefits from this training approach as
well. We establish positive working relationships with the guest agencies.
We gain the support of area officers who are trained in both IPMBA standards
and our Bike Response Group techniques. Should a large special event or local
emergency require large BRG squads, we now have friends from nearby departments
who are prepared to respond and assist appropriately under mutual aid agreements.
Sergeant Bob Hipple, PCI#778, and Officer George Myers, PCI#619, head up
our BRG training. They have traveled to other jurisdictions in an effort
to "procure" lessons learned in respects to bike emergency response training.
Through their efforts, we have found that the Bike Response Group concept
synchronizes well with the conventional mobile field force (dismounted officer)
event response procedure. By working closely with neighboring agencies, we
are expanding the pool of resources available to the greater Indianapolis
area should a special event or emergency dictate a need for more bike-trained
officers than any one agency can deploy on its own.
Overall, the integrated training approach has worked well. We have established
new ties to other police agencies, increased the local pool of IPMBA-trained
bike officers and made untold numbers of new friends and professional
relationships. We will continue to work with our brother and sister officers
from other jurisdictions, strive to encourage their agencies to support police
cycling, and continue to support IPMBA and what it stands for in the law
enforcement community.
Doug has recently been assigned to an intelligence unit, in which he hopes
to explore ways of further integrating the bicycle into homeland security
and domestic preparedness initiatives. He is also the local host coordinator
for the 2008 IPMBA Conference, April 18-26, 2008, in Indianapolis. He can
be reached at dcj1968@comcast.net.
© 2005 IPMBA. This article appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of IPMBA
News. |
