Police reinstate bike beats
Martinsville Police Department K-9 Unit Officer Mark Peters (left) and his canine, Tonka, meet with police Sgt. Chad Rhoads, one of two officers now on bike patrol, Tuesday at the Uptown Farmers Market. (Bulletin photo by Mickey Powell)
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
By MICKEY POWELL – Martinsville Bulletin Staff Writer
A warning to lawbreakers: Martinsville police could be on your heels — and you don’t even know it.
The police department has reinstated its bicycle patrol unit. Officers on two wheels now can easily get to places — where criminals might be hiding — that their co-workers on four wheels cannot reach.
And, because bikes make less noise than cars, police sometimes can sneak up on lawbreakers, catching them in the act, said Sgt. Chad Rhoads, one of two officers in the unit.
“They don’t know we’re there until we touch them,” Rhoads said, recalling recent incidents in which people who were drinking alcohol in places where they were not supposed to were issued warnings.
Rhoads and the bike unit’s other officer, Lane Clark, introduced themselves to the public during a “meet and greet” event held by the police department Tuesday afternoon at the Martinsville Uptown Farmers Market.
The department had a bicycle patrol until it was disbanded about 15 years ago, largely due to budget constraints that resulted in employees being reassigned elsewhere, according to police.
Police Chief Sean Dunn, who started his job last spring, thought it was time that the bikes be taken out of the closet.
While bikes can go where police cars cannot, the main purpose of the bike patrol is not to nab lawbreakers but to put officers in closer touch with city residents, officers said.
“It gives people an opportunity to speak to an officer,” which is harder to do when the officer is in a police car, Dunn said.
Since the bike patrol started about four weeks ago, Rhoads said, “I’ve talked to a lot of people in neighborhoods” whom he never met before. Some invited him and Clark into their homes for a soft drink and conversation, he said.
“It’s amazing just how much more friendly people are” with officers who are on foot or bicycles, he said. “They feel like when we drive by (in a car), we’re not really in their neighborhoods.”
When people know officers personally, they trust police more, which creates stronger bonds between the public and police because people are more likely to report crimes as well as potential problems they think might be occurring, police have said.
“We want every opportunity we can get to interact with citizens,” Dunn said.
Bike patrols will occur throughout Martinsville. Rhoads said officers will ride bikes from the police department uptown to other sites as much as possible. In visiting neighborhoods on the city’s outer edges, however, they can carry their bikes in a police car, then park the car and get on the bikes, he said.
Also at Tuesday’s event, K-9 unit officers Mark Peters and Joe Washburn introduced their new canine partners, German Shepherds named Tonka and Chase. The dogs, which are roughly 12 months old, are undergoing training with the officers in detecting, tracking and apprehension techniques.
“We’re basically learning with the dogs,” Peters said.
The dogs live with the officers, but “every time we come to work, they come with us,” he said.
Tonka largely remained by Peters’ side Tuesday, but Chase seemed to find the farmers market site fascinating, climbing and jumping around on vendors’ stalls like they were playground equipment.
The dogs are well-behaved and associate with the officers’ families. Peters recommends, though, that people who encounter the dogs in public — and whom the dogs do not know — not try to pet them, for safety’s sake.
Animals are animals, and if a police dog were to bite someone, it could be “a lot of liability” for the department, he said.
Tuesday’s “meet and greet” was the first such event that Martinsville police aim to hold at places citywide “every now and then” so residents can become better acquainted with officers, Dunn said.
Alexis Lee was among a small number of people who attended the event.
“It seems the chief and assistant chief (Eddie Cassady) are making an effort to continue (police having) a good relationship with the community,” she said.
The event started at the small park next to the June German Ball mural on Fayette Street, but it was moved to the farmers market due to rain.