Holy Bike Patrol!
by Michael Gommer, PCI #1105-B
Upper Dublin (PA) Police Department
On the weekend of September 26-27, 2015, His Holiness, Pope Francis, traveled to the City of Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families. Preparation for this monumental visit began more than twelve months prior to his visit. Planners had no idea how many pilgrims that would flock to the Philadelphia region to take part in the World Meeting of Families and to see Pope Francis, but they knew it would be a lot. One thing was certain: planners had to balance providing security for Pope Francis with keeping him accessible to the faithful.
Most of the activities for the World Meeting of Families occurred inside the City of Philadelphia; however, police in Montgomery County (PA) had the honor of protecting Saint Charles Seminary, the temporary residence of the Pope. The Montgomery County (PA) Major Incident Response Team (MIRT) tasked their Bike Response Team (BRT) to assist in this mission.
The Bike Response Team consisted of 40 IPMBA BRT trained bike patrol officers working in four ten-man teams. The BRT was assigned many duties, including crowd control, rapid response to emergencies and keeping the motorcade route open.
The BRT also had to strike a balance between policing and controlling the jubilant crowds while maintaining a friendly, law enforcement appearance fitting the joyous occasion.
The BRT Unit performed as advertised. Our “friendly bike cop” appearance fostered a pleasant atmosphere while allowing us the mobility to control the crowds with our mobile barricades. Our biggest test came when the Holy Father decided to make an unscheduled trip to Saint Joseph’s University. It seems we were notified of the visit a few hours after the student body. Upon our arrival, we were met by a large crowd of students that needed to be moved. The BRT team utilized a line formation and was able to move and control the crowd, allowing for a safe and successful visit by Pope Francis.
IPMBA is the leader in police mountain bike training and tactics. IPMBA’s BRT program is just one example of the cutting edge law enforcement training that IPMBA offers to make our job easier and enable us to complete our missions.
I would strongly encourage any police administrator who questions the effectiveness of IPMBA BRT training to look at the success of the 2015 World Meeting of Families. Without IPMBA training, our mission would have been more difficult to complete.
Michael Gommer is a Detective with the Upper Dublin Township Police Department in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He is an IPMBA Police Cyclist Instructor with BRT rating and is the lead trainer and a team leader of the Montgomery County (PA) Major Incident Response Team’s (MIRT) Bike Response Team (BRT). He can be reached at michael.gommer@udpd.us.
(c) 2016 IPMBA. This article appeared in the Winter 2016 issue of IPMBA News.