To clear up some things for everyone. I'm not replacing anything like foot patrol, milage, or anything else. We are trying to start up a bike patrol at our department. We are in a small town and have some difficult terrain here and there. My intentions are to get like many people say, get closer contact with public, sneak up on people, and do get some exercise. I came here to see if I could get some opinions or interaction stories from people.
Mountain bikes are the bikes of choice for law enforcement. Not road bikes that have the speed. No matter how you look at it road bikes aren't designed for law enforcment. Reason being you can't get to the bad guys that are in the bushes or running down the dirt hill, or through the school campus where the stairs are. Mountain bikes are absolutely not designed for speeding to calls either. I'll give you some good examples as to where they are very effective. Stating the obvious, they are quiet. I drive a 1995 Ford Crown Victoria, it's old, loud, and very marked. Mountain bikes, I can hide in the dark, in small corners, behind bushes, and get into places that I can't with my patrol car more so without being seen or heard. Stories from officers have told me that they have snuck up on people with their bike that have been smoking dope, underage drinking, and graffiti problems.
Secondly, the milage on a bike cannot be compared with milage in a car. I put about 100 to 120 miles on my patrol car a night. Whereas a mountian bike I'm going to be restricted. Our purpose, as we will not be able to do a full bike patrol squad like Las Vegas Metro, is to be able to transport our bikes on our patrol cars and to be able to get out of our car and interact with public or move around quietly. We will be restricted to a certain distance from our cars as we will still have to respond to calls. In our department I may potentially be able to ride 5 to 8 miles a day if that. On weekends where we have double coverage that's different. I may be able to spend my day on the bike.
Thirdly, the bike will have our necessities. First off a saddle bag or rear bag. It will carry things like paperwork that we may need, a citation book (obviously), and or anything else necessary. Our gear on our person will still consist of the same things. Regular duty belt, uniform, bike helmet, and radio. The gear is restrictive in nature in the first place, especially that vest. That's restrictive in a patrol car or on foot. The bike will be an extra tool just like our duty gear. Something to get out of the car and do something different to get closer to our beats and our public.
As for some of the comments towards experience. I will admit some of the officers probably haven't ridden a bike since childhood. We have to go through a 40 hour class to include a physical exercise and qualification, along with yearly qualifications. Same as with our guns, tasers, and any other tool we use we will have periodic training and or qualifications. It's not going to be a response vehicle just a tool we can use. There are many uses for them and we will have to be trained. I've seen some of the officers that come out of these classes. Yearly IPMBA has a competition amongst agencies that have bike patrol officers and have the man power to send people. It's a good old fashioned mountian bike race. With a bit of flare. The flare being, taking down suspects with their bikes, manuevering obstacles (stairs, parking lots, alley ways, you get the point) and doing the regular mountain bike racing. These guys are just as much of a biker as the guy that started mountain bike racing in general. In all actuallity I'm pretty sure they are the ones that designed the program.
I came here for some opinions as to experiences, and thoughts about LE on bikes. I know I put some pretty harsh terms in there like "No Junk." Reason being I've asked questions before and got bad responses, or off course, as it happened here several times. I put "Quit Hating on Cops" in my signature as there have been several times that people here have put derogatory remarks because the cop isn't doing the right thing. I've tried to get some to realize those things and some are set in their ways. Thank you to all who have given me some really good information. I may or may not use it as information or stories in a presentation in the department.