More police bike patrols coming to Columbus State this fall
COLUMBUS. Ga. -Bike patrol officers are becoming more popular at college campuses across the country. Columbus State University is one of the latest to upgrade their bike unit.
In just a few weeks thousands of students will begin classes at Columbus State University. One of the ways campus police are trying to ensure those students' safety is by adding more bicycle patrol officers.
“Fall semester is definitely a whole new world for us,” said Sgt. Brett Stanelle of the Columbus State Police Department. “It brings about a lot of new students and first time students and we're trying to get everything prepped in order to provide a safe campus environment.”
That includes adding four new police bike officers. Officials say it's a growing trend on college campuses as police on bikes are often able to get to places where patrol cars cannot. Police say having a good patrol bicycle unit on a college campus is important because of all the students that walk or bike everywhere.
“Pedestrians have to abide by some of the same laws and regulations as vehicles and they're there to help keep those pedestrians and bike riders safe.” said Stanelle.
Columbus State’s bike officers will patrol both the main campus and the RiverPark campus downtown. Officials say because of all the traffic downtown having bike officers will decrease response time on calls.
“Bicycles operate very quickly in that area,” said Stanelle. “They're very accessible to sidewalks, as well as those areas like the RiverWalk.”
The bike patrol additions come on the heels of a $300,000 campus security upgrade. The upgrade included more than 300 cameras over both campuses. They feed directly back to CSU police headquarters, where officers watch the goings-on of daily life around the clock. The new system allows them to change the views, pause and rewind, and the hard drive stores video for 90 days back.
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