Bike patrol rolls out as temperatures rise

By Brent Wise | KOTA TV, April 16

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA TV) - You may have begun to notice more police downtown, not just in their cars but also on bikes.

The Rapid City Police has been trying to crack down on downtown crime and one way they are doing so is with bike patrol.

Plus with the temperature the way it has been recently, some of the cops would rather be on a bike than in a car.

Some areas you’ll see bike patrol monitoring are the downtown area all the different parks around the city.

Rapid City Senior Officer Kyle Akers talks about the biggest differences from being in a car compared to a bike.

"Typically when we are patrolling in a car we are responding to calls for services or in reactive mode. When we are on a bicycle we try to be proactive and not necessarily responding to calls, we are just being out in the public speaking to people in the public just making our presence known in that area," stated Akers.

Akers said they do some in house training on how to get off a bike quickly when having to chase someone. Then Akers joked, saying if someone is falling off the bike a lot in training, they probably won’t get assigned bike patrol.

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