Campus Police rolling out with bike patrol

The Eastfield College Police Department has started training a selection of its officers to patrol the campus on bicycles.

While Eastfield has had policemen patrolling on bicycles previously, it was not as significant or as widespread it is expected to be. A training school was opened a month ago to bring the bike patrol back to the campus. The idea to bring back the bicycle police program was brought by Capt. Michael Horak.

The bicycles are retouched and modified Raleigh mountain bikes the police department already had, but they have been improved and "tuned up," according to Lt. Timothy Ellington. Among some of the upgrades on the bikes that were tuned up to meet modern standards were repairing the brakes, gears and chains. A computer system that shows an odometer reading is also on the bicycles to show the rider's speed, mileage and distance. There are two different models of patrol bikes, a large and a smaller version of the frame to accommodate officers of all sizes.

There are currently six bicycles for the six bike patrol officers at Eastfield with no plans at the moment to add more bicycles, even if the amount of police officers riding bikes increases. Eastfield's Pleasant Grove campus has one bike for patrol, which was given to them from Eastfield's main campus.

Ellington spoke highly of the bicycle police patrol and said that it has many benefits to offer for the students and the officers alike, such as quicker access to distress calls. In addition, Ellington said that having police officers on bicycles, as opposed to patrolling in a vehicle, can bring morale up for the officers, as well as make police officers more sociable to the students and employees on campus.

Ellington said that the idea of having police officers on bikes is a crime prevention tool and is similar to having a police officer walking around campus, they are more visible. He said it is a "proactive way of fighting crime."

While there are more police officers than bikes, the department would like to see the program grow.

"We would love for all of our officers to be on bike patrol," Ellington said. "Bikes can go where cars can't."

The police has plans to keep their officers on bicycle patrol from now until the foreseeable future on campus.

"You will see bike patrol here at Eastfield for a very long time," Ellington said.

Reactions of having a mobile police patrol from students, employees and officers on campus has been positive, with many students saying that they feel safer having a police officer on a bicycle patrolling the campus. The police officers themselves enjoy the training, security and exercise of riding a bicycle on the job.

Kacee Carey, a radiology major, has seen the bicycle police patrolling the campus and thinks that for safety reasons, having them is a good idea. "I think it's a good thing," Carey said. "[Bicycle police] keeps the parking lots safer from break-ins."

In order to be approved for bicycle patrol training, officers must first write a 200-word essay explaining why that officer wants to do bike patrolling and elaborate on how they plan to achieve the requirements to be a patrol officer. Once accepted, the applicant must complete an 18-mile course, navigate a training course, get up and down steps and curves on the bicycle and pass a written test.

Cpl. Brandon Boney, who has taken the course and is one of the officers scheduled to perform routine patrols around the campus, said that the bicycles themselves are intense. "They're hard to get used to," Boney said.

"There are a bunch of different gears you have to switch. It's a good workout."

The officers on bikes ride between 10 to 15 miles a day around the campus with breaks during the day. The officers ride in shifts, Monday through Friday during all seasons in areas they label as east and west sectors, which cover the entire campus.

Both Ellington and Boney said that the program was not started in fear or anticipation of a higher crime rate, and is a precautionary measure to curb crime from even happening.