Bikes Patrols Give Officers an Edge
5:04 PM, Aug 29, 2013, By Anthony Borrelli, Pressconnects.com
Since June, Endicott bicycle officers have responded to 138 incidents, compared to 10 during the summer of 2012. Officers made 22 arrests and 11 car stops on bicycle patrols this year, compared to two arrests and zero car stops in 2012. Other police departments did not keep separate records for bicycle patrols and could not provide similar data.
When David Fish hops on his mountain bike, it’s not for a leisurely tour of the countryside. He’s cycling around Endicott’s business district or cutting through parking lots and neighborhoods, tuned in for signs of trouble.
“I’ll check around for broken windows and signs of any criminal mischief,” Fish said. “As the traffic starts to pick up, I’ll keep riding along and handle the calls as they come.”
Fish is an Endicott police officer who spends the summer months roaming 1 1/2 square miles of the village as one of three officers assigned to a bicycle patrol. It’s a summertime tactic some police agencies use to keep an officer visible and to handle incidents that might go undetected while on the road in a patrol vehicle.
“When you’re in a car, you’re confined to what you can hear and observe, or where you can go,” said Fish, a bicycle officer of six years. “This is about becoming more proactive than reactive when it comes to community policing.”
During his overnight shifts, Officer James Rossi rides his bicycle around Endicott’s quieter areas like schools or side streets.
“On a bike, you can get right on their heels before they even know you’re a law enforcement officer,” Rossi said.
That approach came in handy two years ago, Rossi recalled, when he rolled up to a group of people carrying backpacks in an area that had been struck with extensive graffiti. As it turned out, he said, the group had just vandalized some property.
“We got them with a backpack full of spray paint and closed a lot cases,” Rossi said. “If they heard a police cruiser coming by, they might take off running before we can catch them, so it was a good example of how the element of surprise comes in.”
Police departments use bicycle patrols to varying degrees, sometimes if there is an extra officer working a shift. Other deciding points include manpower and the size of the coverage area, according to local law enforcement officials.
The Binghamton police department puts two officers on bicycle patrol two days a week, but tries to avoid dispatching them to incidents so they can keep moving around as much as possible, according to Police Chief Joseph Zikuski.
“We have them downtown and other problem areas that need our attention and a police presence is necessary,” Zikuski said in an email.
Gene Castner, a 72-year-old lifelong Binghamton resident, said it’s a good approach that echoes “the old days when officers walked the beat.”
“Crime is always a problem, but the visibility is always going to be a big plus,” Castner said. “It’s not just about writing tickets or making arrests, people should make that personal connection with the police officers so they know who’s there to protect them.”
In Vestal, officers assigned to a bicycle patrol tend to cover recreational spots like the Rail Trail or busy commercial areas like the Town Square Mall during the summer months, Vestal police Lt. Gerald Mullins said.
“It’s difficult to get a car in those places at times and an officer can respond a lot quicker if they’re on a bike,” he said. “Wherever we see a high volume of complaints, we’ll try and get an officer down there.”
Vestal police have used a bicycle program for seven years. But the town’s geography makes it tough to justify designating an officer full-time, Mullins said.
“A disadvantage in our case is if the officers needed to respond somewhere else across town,” Mullins said.
The Broome County Sheriff’s Department uses motorcycle patrols as opposed to bicycles, according to Sheriff David Harder.
Police officials could not provide dollar estimates for how much money is saved by putting an officer on a bicycle compared to a vehicle. They described any savings as minimal.
“We don’t track that spending,” said Endicott Police Chief Michael Cox. “There is some savings when you have someone riding a bicycle versus a car, but we can’t put a firm dollar figure on it.”
Even if they learned how to ride a bicycle as children, for police work, officers must to complete a specialized training: navigating a bicycle in tight turns, defensive tactics for how to use the bicycle when engaging a violent suspect, and shooting a gun from a bicycle.
“It’s very much like the techniques we have to learn how to handle our patrol vehicles,” Fish said. “It’s not as easy as it might look.”
Police bicycles aren’t mounted with the colored siren lights found atop the typical patrol vehicle. Gear is stored in a case behind the bicycle seat and the officers also carry basic police equipment such as a gun, handcuffs and a radio.
There are a few drawbacks.
“One disadvantage with being on a bike is you’re not as protected as you might be in a car,” Fish said. “We can still do traffic stops depending on the circumstances, but you also can’t transport a prisoner on a bicycle — so there’s limitations like that.”
For Vincent Gance, owner of Nationwide Insurance on Washington Avenue in Endicott, bicycle patrols in the community have been helpful at tackling small quality of life problems.
Gance said it’s easy to pull aside a bicycling patrolman to talk about a few problems the officers might want to look into.
“Because of the presence we’ve gotten with these bike patrols, we’ve gotten to know each other and it’s more like getting to see an old friend than just another police officer,” Gance said.