My local police force has bikes. According to one of the officers I'd asked a while back, the point of bikes isn't really top speed pursuit. Some stuff I remember him saying:

1) A PR thing - people seem to like to see police on bikes and they appear more accessible when they're not in motion.
2) Accessibility - bike cops can patrol places cars can't really fit. Evidently this decreased crime in a number of hot spots as a result (a foot path and an alley way).
3) Quiet - On at least one occasion, the police were able to drift right up on top of some suspects without them noticing and affect an arrest (they do train take-downs from the saddle).
4) Recon - easy to stop in odd spots and watch, easier to keep an eye around themselves than in a car.

Also....I live in Philadelphia. Downtown has a lot of two-lane streets that can be full of slow-stopped traffic during weekdays and even on some weekends. Even the wider streets in town can be full of cars. Bikes offer maneuverability through stopped traffic and the use of the sidewalks.

The value of a cop on a bike who can just put a foot down and stop and talk to the public is HUGE

Especially in urban environments where police are accused of being distant from the population

It's why cops used to have foot patrols. So they would walk around and interact with the community, make friends with people sitting on their porch who would tell them when something wasn't right. It was healthy.

Then cops started driving in cars and that interaction stopped. Police started being less trusted. The relationship with the public became toxic in a lot of places.

But on a bike...that's all back. You now have a foot patroller who can cover 10 times as much ground without giving up that friendly face that talks to the public.

Baltimore has them, but only in the touristy spots. Bikes are great for interacting with people and keeping purse snatching to a minimum. They aren't so great in hardened drug neighborhoods controlled by gang violence. Cops still use cars in those neighborhoods.

As for a cop's speed on a mountain bike....they spend all day every day on that mountain bike. I'd venture to say they can ride that mountain bike faster than most human beings can ride a road bike.

If I were a cop, I'd prefer a light, dirt bike (motorcycle) that was street legal. That, and four wheelers are what a lot of the criminals are using. I can see them using mountain bikes over road bikes though. That's a no brainer.

That would only make sense if it were electric; you might at some point see some experimentation with a sort of rugged e-bike in that role, but an idling performance type internal combustion engine just doesn't fit the 99% of the time that is being eyes, ears, and approachable presence, for which an upright posture on a rigid frame mountain bike works wonderfully.

I hear what you are saying, and agree to an extent. Small displacement motorcycles, say around 125cc have very low idling sound. But, I agree, anything mechanized like that is not quite as approachable, but certainly more approachable than a cop car. Bikes and maybe eventually ebikes are probably the most approachable, and as others have said gives the cops more range.

Not about speed
 

Cop bikes aren't about speed. It's about access. They've just made the beat cop more mobile.

Lots of police already use e-bikes

Police Power Bikes ? All Terrain Power Bikes

https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/b...ctric/p/22241/

https://electrek.co/2018/06/22/lapd-...bicycle-fleet/

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f85671b17a.jpg

I asked the president of International Police Mountain Bike Association this very question and here's his knowledgeable opinion :

A MTB handles the urban obstacles encountered by public safety cyclist where a road bike would not (stairs, curbs, etc.). The riggors of carrying 50 lbs of equipment for the EMS Cyclist, mainly over the rear tire is another reason. This added weight when negotiating stairs and such would not be tolerated well by a road bike. So in essence, we trade speed for functionality.

I can see that ^.

So in essence, exactly what the rest of us explained to you.

Yea... but he's the prez of the org and no one on this thread is.

And yet we were correct. Guess that means the issue wasn't complicated in the least.

There is an International Police Mountain Bike Association?

That is a very specific group.

I wonder if they get a long with the International Association for Motorcycle Cops....or if they get super competitive in the annual charity softball game against each other.

No, he is saying that urban police bikes are required to have more durable wheels made of carbon.

"(stairs, curbs, etc.). The riggors of carrying 50 lbs of equipment for the EMS Cyclist, mainly over the rear tire"



-Tim-

:lol: :thumb:

Flag football at the company picnic.

I just phoned the president of the International Police Comfort Bike Association, but his office assistant told me he went out for donuts.

Mountain bikes are great. I see the MTB officers quite frequently in parks and off-the-grid places where there's mud, sand, grass, roots, and other stuff that a road bike cannot handle. Individuals will sometimes go to such locations to engage in behaviors that are harmful to themselves and others, and it's good that police can access them relatively quickly.

What I do not understand is why our local PD decided to put several officers on Segways...

Any guesses as to OP's previous user name?

I saw this in Chicago whikle touring a few years back ... officers at a parade on segways and even motorized upright trikes..

My thinking is, they get the elevation that a mounted cop would get, to see over crowds, they get increased top speed over walking, they don't get fatigued, they can carry more gear, and they can mount real sirens---nothing like clearing a path like an actual siren, as opposed to some guy puffing and panting and trying to shout "Make a hole! Make a hole!"

Horses are very high maintenance, moneywise as well. A Segway gives a lot of the advantages (except in Serious crowd-control situations) and still keeps the officer accessible to pedestrians. Also a Segway can stop, motionless, without the rider having to put a foot down.

Never seen officers on Segways in Philly but I have seen EMTs on them during parades and other large events in the street. They even have AEDs with them.

IPMBA - Training, news, and networking for police bicycle patrols.

I don't know but I think its safe to say which group is in phenomenal shape and which group is probably in avg shape at best.

A SUBWAY veggie "doughnut".

True. But I do think the issue of bike patrol could, in some areas, actually be broken down into a mtb AND a road bike division w/ each patrolling areas which math up better w/ each type of bike's advantages. For stairs, dirt, uphill/downhill areas the MTB or long, flat areas where alot of miles would need to be patrolled the RB would definitely be better (especially outfitted w/ minimal equip.). A fully loaded police MTB has to weigh around 100lbs whereas a lightly outfitted RB probably wouldn't weigh more than50lbs. That's one helluva HUGE difference, especially after the first 50 miles of a shift's patrol.