Two-Wheeled Patrollers
Two-Wheeled Patrollers
By Alexa Strabuk, August 2014
In June, shots rang out at Seattle Pacific University’s campus on the north slope of Queen Anne Hill. Officers on bikes were the first responders to control the situation and were later assisted by arriving patrol cars. The two-wheeling front line of the police force has proven to be a fundamental part of keeping Seattle’s streets clean and safe. Stealth and speed in high-stress situations are important reasons why these patrolmen reach crime scenes first. Illicit activity often takes place in off-street, hidden locations, which blinds driving patrols that simply can’t reach those areas.
Alternatively, these bike cops are not only able to monitor parts of the city inaccessible by car, but also give a face to the police department, building trust with the community they are charged with protecting. Unless the windows are down in a police car, officers may be unable to hear screams or breaking glass that could indicate public disruption nearby. Those working on bike are more physically and tactically equipped to respond to sounds and sights silently, without lights or sirens, giving law enforcement an element of surprise. Utilizing bikes is also more cost efficient, eliminating gas expenses and embracing an exemplary, environmentally conscious, health oriented, emission-free philosophy.
The idea to coalesce bicycles into the police department started as early as the 1800s. Law enforcement used bikes to patrol, to respond and to catch the occasional runaway horse. Though accounts and photographs evidence the historical employment of non-motorized vehicles, it wasn’t until the invention of the modern mountain bike, some 30 years ago, that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) saw the day-to-day practicality of a bicycle as an advantageous, valuable and essential policing tool.
After a year of brainstorming, Seattle’s bicycle patrol unit began as an experiment in the summer of 1987 when there was an increasing need for an easy, convenient way to maneuver through the congested city center. With the construction of the metro bus tunnel downtown, many residents were faced with a daily traffic gridlock, making the city a mess, and for police, hindering patrol car effectiveness and foot patrols simply weren’t adequate enough to keep up with a rising crime rate.
Inspired, Sergeant Paul Grady and his partner, Mike Miller, set out on their own personal mountain bikes as SPD’s first ever bike unit on July 10, 1987. According to the Law Enforcement Bicycle Association (LEBA), the program’s success was immediate: 30 minutes into the first patrol, the officers executed three narcotics-related arrests. In the first month, 500 more misdemeanor arrests were made ... five times more than the average number for foot patrols. The two reached out to Raleigh Bicycles and the company donated four new bicycles. Soon, SPD added two more full-time bike patrolmen and started placing them in other parts of the city like Alki Beach. On the International Police Mountain Bike Association (IPMBA) website, an essay by Ross Petty of Babson College reports that by 1993, Seattle had 70 officers riding the streets.
A highly coveted position within the police force, bike patrol units are now part of an increasing number of law enforcement departments across the country, and they do much more than chase runaway horses.
Though not the first, Seattle is credited with spearheading the widely publicized effort to promote bicycle units as vital to everyday law enforcement and as a useful PR/outreach method. Requests from other departments flooded in during the preliminary years of the program and in 1991, the League of American Bicyclists, then called the League of American Wheelmen, organized the first annual Police on Bikes Conference in Tucson, Ariz. A year later, the aforementioned International Police Mountain Bike Association was founded followed by the 1993 establishment of a second major training consortium: the Law Enforcement Bicycle Association (LEBA). The latter organization’s inception was inspirited by Grady’s cardinal national training seminar, a gathering of officers to learn about the techniques and benefits of bike patrols at the Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle in September of 1993.
The initiative has grown patently and presently, most major cities have similar mountain bike units. Statistics provided by the US Department of Justice Bureau indicate that in 2003 around 10% of sheriffs officers used frequent bike patrols to operate a total of 3,354 bicycles. Meanwhile in that same year, local police departments operated a total of 28,724 bicycles, an average of six bikes per 100 officers. The most updated information, dating 2007, reported that 4,024 agencies of 12,575 (32%) surveyed were regularly using bikes.
The bicycle program at SPD is one of the largest of its kind and remains intrinsic to the force. Sgt. James Dyment, currently in charge of organizing bicycle training and maintenance programs in Seattle, says, “We’re the most advanced as far as how we deploy and the technology we use. Downtown, we have 35 full-time bike riders that patrol [in shifts that cover the city for] 18 hours of the 24-hour day.” The squad works long hours performing a high pressure, physically taxing job that requires them to operate as a cohesive team. Though only 35 are full-time, SPD trains hundreds of officers to step up if needed. In February, the department called on 105 bicycle policemen to manage crowds and protect floats during the Seahawks’ Superbowl victory parade.
Home to a handful of the best IPMBA certified instructors, Seattle’s bicycle prestige lies in the department’s meticulously perfected program. SPD follows basic IPMBA training protocol and integrates some of their own. Each trainee goes through intensive week-long instruction, though no prior biking experience is necessary. Participants learn about bicycle fitting, how to appropriately wear a helmet and the right way to shift gears. They practice descending and ascending staircases as well as maneuvering through slow-speed cone and balancing courses. Nutrition and fitness elements are also taught since duties can be very physically demanding. To qualify and be selected full-time, candidates must have been an officer for at least a year and pass both a written and a series of bicycle-skill proficiency tests.
Other municipalities approach bike policing a little differently. Though Idaho’s Boise Police Department also references IPMBA for training guidelines, their unit is considerably smaller so the predominant responsibilities and levels of intimacy shift. Officer Blake Slater, one of six full-time bike cops in Boise, says, “Prior to 1989, the department utilized horse mounted patrols, which were expensive, and since horses can only work six hours, we could not cover the necessary amount of distance efficiently.” Now with bikes, the police can patrol from six in the morning until ten at night unrestricted. After a competitive bid process, they partner with George’s Cycles, a local shop, who leases them bikes for two-year increments of time. By leasing, the city doesn’t need to keep buying new, upgraded bicycles and ultimately returns the used ones to the shop for resale, receiving a new batch in their place and avoiding a loss of operation time for repair/maintenance.
Boise’s program differs from other departments in its mission. Slater explains, “I’m not attached to a patrol necessarily, which allows me a lot more latitude in the way I work.” Slater says that he is much more approachable on a bike, “[Bike patrols in Boise] are the perfect PR tool. I’m off my bike 50% of the time interacting with the community. I can cover more of the city two times faster than a patrol car. During the winter, I’d say I bike 20-25 miles [a day] and in the summer it’s something like 40-70.”
With Boise being a major refuge city, Slater sees and interacts with a lot of homelessness. Increased emphasis on outreach is a trend among less populated, more intimate civic centers. Similar to Boise, Oregon’s Beaverton Police Department’s bicycle unit cultivates and maintains a very strong relationship with the local community. Not only do they canvass the area but they also spend time at Beaverton schools to teach students basic principles of bicycle safety and to organize educational sessions for people of all ages.
No matter whether it’s a big city or small town, Dyment says the position is highly coveted, in part because biking is healthier and because “people enjoy riding and being outdoors.” He agrees with Slater’s perspective, adding, “[Bike cops] have a lot more freedom to be proactive and to engage with the public. That’s the major draw.”
Testimony from police addressing the positive impact of routine bike implementation is unrelenting and other evidence seems to concur. Chris Menton, Associate Professor at Roger Williams University’s School of Justice Studies conducted an investigation in 2006 that observed patrols in Charlotte, N.C., and Hartford, Conn., to measure the effectiveness of officers patrolling on bikes versus cars. The research looked at the number of radio calls each type of patrol officer answered, how many contacts were achieved per hour and whether those interactions were positive, negative or serious. Menton concluded that bicycle units are equally, if not more, effective in most patrol duties.
Bike cops bridge the gap between the people and the city, enforcing a united front from which to operate. Their presence strengthens the justice system by being more efficient and opens a line of communication for citizens to express concerns, opinions or ideas. These individuals protect and control the streets, handling everything from high-stress crises to the occasional lost tourist or worried civilian. In nearly all ways, bicycle patrolmen are the overlooked superheroes ... just maybe without the cape, which would, undoubtedly, run a high risk of getting caught in the spokes of those fast-turning wheels.