IPMBA Goes to Disneyland

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by James Englert, PCI #1081
Arapahoe County (CO) Sheriff’s Office
IPMBA Industry Liaison

For the second year in a row, I was lucky enough to teach an IPMBA Police Cyclist Course at the NASRO (National Association of School Resource Officers) Conference, which took place at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Last year, I taught the first IPMBA-NASRO Police Cyclist Course in Orlando. We are going to teach the next one at the 2017 NASRO Conference in Washington DC.

I often write about NASRO because being an SRO (School Resource Officer) is very important to me. I completed the NASRO instructor program in March after teaching an SRO class in Grand Junction, CO. Bicycling is also important to me, so I try to incorporate bikes into being an SRO as much as possible.

When the opportunity to teach an IPMBA class at the 2016 NASRO conference was presented, I jumped on it. First of all it was at Disneyland, and second, it was in California. What could be better? I imagined us riding through the theme park, seeing parts of the park most people never see. After exchanging e-mails with my contact person at the Disneyland Resort, however, I quickly realized we would only get to ride in the parking areas, which by itself is great and gracious, but I was hoping for more access.

Through the exchange of e-mails, I arranged to use the top of one of the convention center garages for the cone work. I didn’t know the area around there at all. I figured we would do the classroom portion in a meeting room and then ride around the neighborhoods and use school grounds for skills.

Los Angeles School Police (LASPD) was one of the conference hosts. I was lucky that Sergeant Luis Smith from the LASPD was willing to drive around the resort and look for local schools and locations to use for different skill stations.

Eric Kackley with Volcanic Bikes was attending the conference as an exhibitor and was kind enough to bring an extra bike for me to use in the class. There were a couple of “firsts” for me with this class. It was the first class I taught with flat pedals, and the first time I rode a bike equipped with a frame bag.

I don’t want to talk too much about the frame bag, which is a Revelate product, but after using it for a just a couple of days, I really liked the bag and its design. Although it is not possible to access the water bottle cages with it installed, it was easy to just place my water bottle in the bag. There are a couple of zippered pockets that are easily accessible while riding. For my bike class, the bag had plenty of room, and I could definitely see using it on patrol. The big disadvantage is that it makes it difficult to use car racks that hold the bike by the frame.

I was wearing Five Ten Men’s Freerider Contact Shoes with “Stealth Mi6 Rubber” and using flat pedals. I had no issues with my foot slipping off the pedal. I did notice that with flat pedals, you really have to pay attention to the angle of the pedal while doing some of the skills. If you are an instructor or planning to use flat pedals on duty, don’t do what I did and just jump on the bike without practicing. It will take some time to get used to the flat pedals, particularly performing some of the skills for which I have come to rely on clips. I really had to pay attention to the pedals.

Six people registered for the class. Four people showed up: two officers from Ventura County CA and a deputy from Vancouver County WA. The deputy from Vancouver County didn’t register in advance but had brought his riding gear in hopes of getting into the class. He didn’t bring a bike, but fortunately, LASPD was able to loan him one for the week.

With just four people in the class, we had a great time. All the riders had experience riding bikes, which made it especially enjoyable. We did the cone course section in the parking lot and we did all the road riding and other skills in the surrounding neighborhoods.

One thing I wasn’t used to but found difficult was most of the schools had fences around them and the parking lots. That changed my plans a little on locations for skills. Disneyland didn’t want us riding on any sidewalks or in the park. We made it work by getting the classroom portions done early in the day, riding in the afternoon, and doing most of the riding outside the Disney property.

I want to thank Sgt. Luis Smith, now retired, from LASPD for doing the footwork prior to my arrival and for loaning the Vancouver officer a bike; Eric Kackley of Volcanic Bikes for letting me borrow a bike, former IPMBA Instructor Clint Sandusky (recently retired from Riverside Community College and loving it) for assisting, and NASRO for hosting an IPMBA Course at their conference.

Congratulations to Kyle Turner, Gary Morales, Rey Reynolds, and Luis Smith on successfully completing the course. Welcome to IPMBA!

James has been a deputy with Arapahoe County for 16 years. He has worked in the jail and on the road. He became a School Resource Officer (SRO) in 2006. He was certified as an IPMBA Police Cyclist in 2006 and an IPMBA Instructor in 2008. He received the ASCO Award of Valor and the NASRO National Award of Valor in 2014 for his role in the December 2013 school shooting. He was elected to the IPMBA Board in 2012 and currently serves as Industry Liaison. He can be reached at jenglert9926@gmail.com.

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