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Area law enforcement agencies are encouraging their officers to learn to use a bicycle in any situation.
By NEGAR TEKEEI
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 17, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- Gunbelts strapped to their hips, helmets fastened to perspiring heads and gloved hands gripping the handlebars of sturdy mountain bikes, these police are learning to pedal up stairs, over curbs and through traffic.
"Your bike is your life," Rich Bahret, a community police officer with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, told 18 police officers on the second day of a five-day Police Cyclist Course last week.
The 16 men and two women from the St. Petersburg, Tampa, Fort Myers and Clearwater police departments and the Hillsborough, Pinellas and Lee County sheriff's offices watched him, straddling their bikes as sweat dripped from their faces in the hot sun. They had just practiced biking up and down stairs and were now learning how to keep their bicycles in top condition.
In an effort to increase the effectiveness of community policing, area law enforcement agencies are encouraging their officers to learn how to use a bicycle in any situation.
That's where Bahret and the International Police Mountain Bike Association come in. Bahret and three other police officers with the mountain biking group taught the students the basics of biking on the streets and sidewalks and anywhere else their beat takes them. The training also included methods of approaching suspects safely, using guns while wearing bicycle gloves, and how to chase and take suspects into custody.
Part of the 40-hour session took place in St. Petersburg College's Regional Community Policing Institute at 3200 34th St. S. In the classroom, officers learned about the history of mountain bikes, community policing with a bicycle, fitness and nutrition, bicycle and traffic laws and bicycle maintenance. Evenings and afternoons were spent learning actual biking skills at Eckerd College's campus, downtown St. Petersburg and the Boyd Hill Nature Park -- ideal locations for training because they present the type of physical obstacles police would encounter during neighborhood patrol.
On the fifth day of the course, police take a written test and are evaluated on their biking skills. Only a minority of officers with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and the St. Petersburg Police Department are certified in police mountain biking. While both departments have community policing officers who are given fully equipped mountain bikes, officers can choose whether to use them on their beats.
Though police are not required by their departments to take the course and be certified in police mountain biking, Bahret said he recommends the training especially as departments use their bike patrols in different ways.
Police on bicycles are at an advantage in may situations because they are able to maneuver faster and farther than foot officers in patrol areas unfit for squad cars, he said.
"We ride our bikes to catch dope dealers," said Wes Callahan, a member of St. Petersburg's street narcotics squad. "You can't hear a bicycle coming up from behind you, but noise from a car can alert suspects."
Officer Doug Allen, an amateur bicyclist, has been community policing for seven of his 11 years with the St. Petersburg Police Department. One of 60 community police officers on the force today, he said he enjoys the contacts he makes with the people in his patrol area. Contacts, he said, that he would never be able to make from a car.
This relationship with neighborhoods, said Barbara Kieta, training facilitator with the Florida Regional Community Policing Institute, is exactly what community policing is about. Community policing is a philosophy that involves bringing police into a partnerships with businesses, educators, residents and neighborhoods.
"You have to start knowing the neighborhoods, knowing what's going on and getting to know the people," she said. "Although riding on bicycles is only a part of community policing, it's an important part of getting to know the people in neighborhoods and being a very visible person in neighborhoods."