Columbus Bike Officers Prepare For Big Crowds At Saturday’s Ohio State Game
By Bryant Somerville, Columbus Dispatch, Wednesday November 18, 2015 10:24 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio -
The Columbus Police Department has 129 full-time bike officers, which is the most of any unit in the country. On Wednesday, a handful of those officers were brushing up on their skills.
"We brought all these officers out here to kind of refresh the training they've gotten over the last year," Sgt. Duane Mabry said. "And show them their techniques and maybe update their skills and techniques so they can better respond to the campus community."
Sgt. Mabry says a few months ago, officers kicked into gear and started training for specific events, like the upcoming game between Ohio State and Michigan State.
Mabry calls it a lighter approach to handle larger crowds. "This is a great technique," Mabry said. "It's a softer approach than having that militarized look of turtle suits and helmets and shields and all that."
He says the bikes allow officers to be quicker with less fatigue. In short, it's an advantage to patrolling large areas.
For instance, if patrolling a perimeter, Sgt. Mabry says it would take three officers to handle the same area as one officer on a bike, which saves time and resources.
"Whereas I could take one officer on a bike and take up that same amount of space and now free up those resources to provide security elsewhere," he said. "And, that's really important this day-in-age, especially after the events over the last week or so."
The officers training includes how to patrol as a unit and how to set up a barrier to keep large crowds back.
Sgt. Mabry says only three other cities in the United States utilize bike officers like Columbus: Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington D.C.