Biking Cops: Come To Think Of It, with Carlos Antonio L. Leonardia
The Visayan Daily Star, April 20, 2018
The topic of bicycles in my previous article got me thinking a little more about that mode of transportation and how we are not maximizing it.
The decline of biking is understandable here in the Philippines where the climate can be oppressively hot and the roads dangerous. Just as today’s adults no longer need to learn to drive anymore because of ridesharing solutions, today’s children don’t need to learn to bike anymore because of the internet and parents don’t encourage it because they’d rather have their kids stay home.
A lot of us may not be interested in biking anymore but if there is one group that should consider the use bicycles, it would be our policemen.
With this government’s obsession with police and military visibility and “empowerment”, we’ve been seeing lots of policemen standing around, “patrolling” street corners. They stand there in their combat-ready uniforms made friendlier with high visibility vests, ostensibly to stop crime and the proliferation of drugs, making those of us who are certain we are not in drug lists feel safe with their mere presence.
But wouldn’t it be better if they didn’t just stand around in one place? Going on foot patrols is ok but cops get to cover a smaller area on foot and they are less mobile. If you come to think of it, those cops could better serve the public if they were on bikes.
Cops on bikes don’t have to be on their bicycles 24/7. They can still hang out at their favorite street corner but if they were to go on patrol, they’d be able to cover larger areas. If they were called to respond to an incident, they wouldn’t have to wait for a patrol car or commandeer a jeepney.
In a country where police cars are considered a luxury considering the number of cops we have out there, bikes could make a big difference. If we don’t have the budget for it, we can always ask our good friend China for a loan, call it a donation, and add it to our gigagillion peso tab for the succeeding generations of Filipinos to pay. Even if the bikes are overpriced and the interest rates secret, the Filipino taxpayer will still shell out less money on bicycles rather than patrol cars.
Patrol bicycles will allow our policemen to keep larger areas of our cities safe. For cities with bike lanes, having cops on bikes will also help ensure that the bike lane is respected by other drivers and that might even encourage more bikers which would could it worth the investment in paint and publicly owned real estate.
Aside from making bike lanes useful, patrol bikes will also encourage more bike racks or parking spaces for bicycles that are currently unavailable for most cyclists. Having more policemen use the infrastructure dedicated for cycling will encourage more people to consider it safe and therefore a feasible transportation option. If we are serious about encouraging bicycles to make our cities greener and more livable, someone will have to take the lead and adding more cyclists into the system through bicycle cops will kill more than two birds with just one stone.
Policemen on patrol currently stake out only one spot at a time. If we have bike patrols, the patrolmen can easily cover a 5-block radius around that same area on a regular basis without even breaking a sweat. The people of the community would be glad to see them doing more than just standing around and the criminal elements would be forced to move their nefarious activities elsewhere. There would be no fuel costs and the physical activity would keep our cops healthy and fit.
Bikes may not be sexy for cops who might prefer motorcycles or patrol cars but in a country where traffic is terrible and resources are limited, cops on bicycles could do more to keep the peace and order in their communities. It is a wonder why local government units and police officials have not explored the idea or if they have, why it failed in past attempts to implement it. Now that our policemen have all the support they can want from the government, maybe they should give this idea another chance.*