Fontana Unified School District police reinstate bicycle patrols
By Jim Steinberg, The San Bernardino County Sun, February 16, 2015
Photo: Officers Jon MacMillan, left, and Amanda Liabeuf, stand outside the Kaiser High School campus in Fontana. The school district police have re-started bicycle patrols after years of suspending them for budget reasons. Photos by Micah Escamilla — staff photographer
FONTANA >> Fontana Unified School District police have reinstated bicycle patrols after shelving that method of policing more than four years ago.
“Bicycles can slip around traffic much easier than automobiles or even motorcycles,” said Scott Mesa, chief of the Fontana Unified School District’s police department.
“They can be surreptitiously and cruise up to things. They are another tool for law enforcement,” he said.
Bicycles have great public relations value, Mesa said.
School children, especially elementary students, love bicycles, he said.
Although exactly when bicycle policing was eliminated from the department is not immediately available, officers said it was done during the time FUSD and other school districts were cutting programs due to the state budget crisis.
With the rebirth, officers are focusing on bicycle and pedestrian safety, said Jon MacMillan, who along with Amanda Liabeuf are the two officer’s assigned to the units.
Instead of issuing citations, officers require students who violate some law of non-motorized travel, such as not wearing a helmet, to write a one-page essay on the importance of safe practices.
“The goal is to make officers more approachable and to help with education of the law,” MacMillan said.
MacMillan said that it’s hoped that as FUSD parents see bicycle patrols around the school, it might encourage them to accompany their child to school on a bike, instead of driving them.
The district’s bicycle mounted police officers use Cannondale mountain bikes on 29-inch tires. They are equipped with a mounted siren and police lights, MacMillan said.
For policing, bikes can cover a campus quickly, he said, noting that the Fontana High School campus spans more than 40 acres.
In 2013 the city of Fontana police department restored its bicycle policing program with a focus on working with the homeless in parks and downtown.