The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Bike patrols gear up for summer
Pedal power is quiet, quick, good for community, officers say
Police on bicycles remain an effective tool for meeting good people and chasing down the bad ones around Lorain County, local law officers said.
As Northeast Ohio warms up for spring and summer, authorities will send out pedal-powered patrols in communities around the county and nearby.
Local bike officers acknowledged bicycles are not good for high-speed pursuits or hauling off a wagon-load of suspects.
But they said the two-wheelers can go places where police cars can’t, quickly and quietly.
Bikes are a high-profile form of police presence because people wave and may be more likely to talk to an officer on a bicycle instead of approaching a parked police car.
“In the daylight hours, people do see you,” said Avon Lake police
Sgt. Les Carrender. He coordinates the department’s bike patrol, which has been around at least 20 years.
“You’re in the neighborhoods, you have an opportunity to see kids out and about riding their bikes, they stop and talk to you,” said Carrender, who recalled some youths riding around the block alongside him.
Compared to police cars, the bikes are stealthy and give officers an element of surprise.
“But at the same time, it’s low-profile because when you see a cyclist, you don’t see law enforcement, you don’t see an officer,” said Lorain County Sheriff’s Deputy Nathaniel Krueger, who will begin bike patrol this summer.
A police car may travel through a neighborhood at 25 to 35 mph, said Avon police Patrolman David Layne, who is coordinating that department’s bike patrol.
Rolling along at 10 to 15 mph, officers see, hear and smell much more than when they are in cars, Layne and Krueger said.
Layne recalled the sights and sounds of training earlier this year, which included a 20-mile evening ride around the east side of Cleveland.
“You can see a lot more and hear a lot more of your surroundings,” he said. “I loved it.”
Getting started
This summer, the Avon Police Department is deploying four bike patrol officers for the first time.
The bikes probably won’t be rolling through the city’s busiest intersections, such as Detroit Road and state Route 83, down the street from the police station, said Avon police Chief Richard Bosley.
But Avon has a mix of neighborhoods, shopping areas and parks where the bikes will go, Bosley said.
There also are a lot of school-age children in the city, the chief said.
“It’s a tool,” Bosley said about a bike patrol. “There’s a lot of tools in law enforcement. I think it’s a tool that our agency has chosen to use. Other agencies may take different approaches. I just think with our demographics, it’s a good solution for us.”
At the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office, Krueger and Deputy Cody Northeim have completed a bike patrol training course at Ohio Wesleyan University.
They are part of Sheriff Phil Stammitti’s Township Impact Unit, in which deputies are assigned to geographic parts of the county for work assignments; they also help the road patrol deputies as needed.
Compared to a cruiser, the bikes have a limited range of distance, Krueger said.
But they can be used anywhere the Sheriff’s Office deals with a condensed population, he said.
Examples include the neighborhoods of Amherst, Sheffield and Eaton townships, along with the Lorain County Fair.
Sheriff’s deputies and Avon police likely will use a hybrid system for patrol.
Cruisers can be equipped with bike racks to carry the police bicycles around for officers to use when needed.
Learning to ride
The International Police Mountain Bike Association has created curricula for training police, emergency medical technicians and security guards.
The training consists of at least 32 hours covering a variety of topics dealing with bikes and police work.
“People will say, well, riding a bike is easy, you don’t ride a bike for 10 years, you can get right back on and ride a bike. True,” Carrender said. “However, as a bike officer, we train and do things from a law enforcement perspective, not just riding the bike.”
Officers learn about balance, how to fall, and how to position on the bike for riding uphill or downhill.
“Most of the time, everybody thinks you just get on the bike and ride,” Layne said. “That wasn’t the case. A lot of the riding is very slow, very deliberate, navigating cones.”
The bikes may be more versatile than people think. Officers train for traffic stops, foot pursuits, riding up and down steps, on the street and off-road.
“It’s not like you’re pedaling around in a parking lot for five days,” Krueger said. “In my case, I hadn’t rode a bike since I was 13 years old. The first couple days, it was very frustrating for me.
“By the fifth day, I was doing the stairs.”
The training includes some field repairs, including patching the tube when a tire goes flat, which happened often in the training, Krueger added.
Reaction
Police officers said they expect to have a good response to the bike patrols.
“The parents, I think, will welcome it,” said Jim Drozdowski, public information officer for Avon police.
Drozdowski started a police bicycle patrol years ago while police chief in Grafton and wants Avon officers to be role models for cycling safety for Avon youths.
“If I know this community, I think you’re going to see the program expand once you see the outpouring of support,” he said.
Avon Lake has 30 police officers; among them, 10 are trained to ride bikes and two more hope to train this year, Carrender said.
Other officers see that the bike police have fun, have success in law enforcement and enjoy good community relations, he said.
“If a program is successful, it’s because of the officers who are doing the program,” Carrender said.
With Avon Lake’s bike patrol in place for at least 20 years, Carrender said he chuckles when hearing about agencies considering starting a bicycle patrol.
“I couldn’t imagine not having it,” he said. “It’s worked out that well.”