Bike Officers Teach Safety
By Sara Millhouse, June 19, 2013, Dyersvillecommercial.com
These officers will definitely be wearing helmets.
Dyersville Police Department (DPD) bicycle officers Leah Heacock and Jeff Nystel will be riding the streets this summer, checking on businesses, responding to emergencies and teaching, through example and interaction, the principles of bike safety to area children.
This Thursday, June 20, the young officers will be front and center at the DPD’s bicycle safety rodeo, planned for 6-8 p.m. at the Dyersville Social Center on the corner of Third Avenue and Sixth Street SE.
Prior to the rodeo, the police department collects donations from area businesses for bike helmets, which are then donated to attendees.
In addition, kids have the chance to win one of two mountain bikes at the rodeo. A boys’ bike and a girls’ bike will be given away as grand prizes.
The rodeo will include a bike obstacle course, safety instruction and inspection and registration for bike licenses.
The bike officers will also participate in other events throughout the summer, including a crime scene investigation scenario with third and fifth graders at Dyersville’s James Kennedy Public Library.
As bike officers, law enforcement students such as Heacock and Nystel gain experience in their field while providing extra feet on the ground — or in the seat — for police departments. They have the ability to detain subjects, but not make arrests, explained Mike Comer, DPD assistant chief.
Nystel is studying at Iowa State. A Manchester native, he conducted a similar internship in Manchester last summer. Heacock, of Epworth, is studying at Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC).