Tigard Police launch bicycle patrol team to protect trails, paths.
The Tigard Times, by Geoff Pursinger, Thursday, 20 August 2015
TIMES PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE - Tigard Police officer April Keller gives Jamil Scamarone a sticker while he and his father watch the officers bike training at Cook Park.
This summer, more than a dozen of Tigard’s finest have traded in their standard police uniforms and patrol vehicles for something a bit less conspicuous — bikes.
The city’s bicycle patrol team launched in June, part of a new effort to protect the city’s miles of sidewalks, paths and hidden trails.
“You can walk from Cook Park almost all the way to Scholls Ferry Road on our trails,” said Tigard Police Officer Brian Imus. “There’s a lot of potential there for us to be able to do some good.”
Last year, the city adopted a plan to become the most walkable city in the Pacific Northwest. The city has a long way to go before it can claim that title, but Imus said that Tigard’s police want to be ready when it does.
“If we’re going to be the most walkable city possible, we have to have safe trails,” Imus said.
Last week, a team of Tigard Police officers weaved around traffic cones at Cook Park as part of a 32-hour training to be able to manage their mountain bikes in all types of situations.
“We want to put a lot of miles on the bikes so that (officers) know what that feels like to be on a bike all day,” said Officer Brian Orth.
Glenn Scruggs, a Tigard officer and avid cyclist, said that he’s already seen a difference since launching the team earlier this year.
“The first day that I was on the bike, I saw five spots where there was graffiti,” he said. “Now those spots are a lot nicer.”
Tigard Police spokesman Jim Wolf said that the community response to the bicycle team has been largely positive.
“People like seeing officers out of their patrol cars,” Wolf said. “It helps people feel like police are accessible and approachable.”
Currently, the department doesn’t have the staffing to make the bike team a full-time part of the operation. Officers volunteer for a shift as part of their regular patrol duties, taking a few hours away from their cars and instead hopping onto official Tigard Police mountain bikes.
“You see so many different things on a bike than you do in a car,” Orth said. “You ride with kids who like seeing you and ask you questions. It’s a different atmosphere than being in a patrol car.”
Until recently, police had little way of keeping an eye on the city’s trail system.
“We have officers that have been here for years and years riding down trails that they didn’t know existed,” Imus said. “It gives us a chance to learn about places that we’ve never patrolled before.”
Most of the bicycle team’s work is public relations, Imus said, but officers have also been able to work on issues that regular patrol officers wouldn’t be able to tackle.
“We get to places that cars can’t physically go,” Imus said. “We’re places that citizens aren’t used to seeing us, and people that may be up to no good don’t expect to see us, either. It makes the trails safer for everybody who wants to use them.”
The idea is to cover the city’s trails and sidewalks at various times and days.
“You see the true nature of how people conduct themselves,” Imus said. “They don’t recognize us yet on bikes. They see officers differently than when police speed by in a car with their lights on.”
For more on the Tigard Police bicycle patrol team, visit tigard-or.gov.