Pointless musings on the boys/girls in blue

[Mac66]

This concerns those police mounted on bicycles.

Why do they ride mtbs/atbs. I suspect that very few officers have needed to go cross country in pursuit of evil perps. Wouldn't a cross bike give them more speed for the say 99% of the time they are on reasonably surfaced roads/tracks?

Do they receive specialised training in the same way that their car driving counterparts do? I think it's a bit shoddy if they don't. Just because you can ride a bike doesn't mean you are any good at it. They should be required to take Bikeability level 3 imho (assuming they don't already) with additional training for off-road skills for the 1% of the time they will be needed. Regular refreshers too. After all the police should be exemplary in the performance of all their duties.

Is an underpass an extension of the pavement? If it is, then generally speaking it will be illegal to cycle through one. So why do I oft see police cycling through them and continue on the pavement. Poor show.

End of idle brain wandering.

 

[John the Monkey]

Regarding the training, it depends on the force - some do offer specialised training, and some don't being the current position, I believe.

 

[col]

At a guess i would say the bikes are stronger in wheel,for kerbs and potholes,and the inevitable detour across fields or land?
And last time i asked,i was told they dont get training for cycling,just grab one and go,might have changed now though?
I cant see a problem with a police cyclist on the pavement,i doubt he will be zig zagging between people,just going about his business.

 

[mr Mag00]

it would be my ideal job ride all day with a little enforcing 'the law'

 

[Trillian]

i got stopped, on the road bike in the pedestrianised city centre

i'd been going at a walking pace through a not too busy shoping street to get to a bike stand.

they came through at about 15mph to tell me i shouldn't be riding in the centre and there are no cycling signs on all entrances

there arent, only on the normal entrances, if like me you come in through the service entrances (behind the shops) there are no signs, i take this route as it means i'm in the pedestrianised bit for less time.

they saw the funny side of it and didn't fine me (partly cos i humourously pointed out they should have walked to me to tell me off.

 

[catwoman]

I had a chat with some Police cyclists recently. There had been an article in the local rag about them when they set-up around here a couple of years ago. They confirmed what the article said in that they can ride their bikes up some flights of steps. I don't imagine the steps would be the stairwells you find in blocks of flats but bike skills like that are necessary for some of the estates around here. Lots of changes in ground levels in them.
I saw some more Police cyclists undergong road training a while later and they certainly didn't look fit enough to achieve the steps thing, but they were obviously just starting/trying out.
The first group of cyclists I saw looked super fit and could definitely give good chase to most of the scrawny spotted youth around here.

 

[Trillian]

The first group of cyclists I saw looked super fit and could definitely give good chase to most of the scrawny spotted youth around here.

i've dropped them a few times, both on mountain bike and on road bike.

i've normally just asked them where they're headed to and then challenged them to a race (observing traffic laws)

 

[gavintc]

I friend of mine wears blue. He conducts the training of the policemen at his station. He is qualified and was also responsible for choosing the bikes. He reckons the MTB style is more robust for the jobs they do.

 

[papercorn2000]

A guy in our club is a polis, he used to ride espoirs in France for a few years. He's currently in the Community Unit for his division - they are the ones that get to ride the bikes. I bet he'd scare a few car drivers!

 

[summerdays]

I was chatting with one today, and it came up in conversation about the police officer who was killed by the lorry (?last year or the year before), and that the initial response had been to stop all the bike cops in some areas. I didn't look at the bike she was riding, but she was complaining of a bad back cos of the weight of the stab-vest, and I suspect all the bits would fall out of the pockets if she was down on drop handlebars.
We were discussing what they would do when they saw kids on the pavements. She said it would depend on when where and how they were cycling (obviously they wouldn't get a FPN).

 

[The Young Soul Rebel]

What is a FPN?

All the cops on bikes I see are going so slow I don'y think Dropped bars would be much of an advantage anyway.

 

[summerdays]

Fixed Penalty notice - £30 (so can't be given to kids under 16), but they may still have a word with them depending on how they are cycling.
(as to going slow, there is a small hill outside my house, and I saw a different woman PC zig-zaging her way up the hill - its not big by Bristol standards).

 

[Old Walrus]

We have the Smith & Wesson MTBs, solid but slow! Kit is appalling with no prospect of it improving, wearing the standard issue body armour is particularly unpleasant.

Having said that it's good fun to use them and ideal for the community side of policing, cheaper than the chopper for off-road searches too!

 

[Paulus]

My son joined the Herts police last year and has yet to do his cycle training, even though he went up the Ventoux with me three years back and has been doing 100 milers for the last 6 years, and has a certificate from our local borough's cycle training course. They won't let him loose on two wheels until he has done the Police course.

 

[bonj2]

wot mr paul said.

cross bikes are no better (read: hardly any better) than road bikes for kerbs, etc.

Plus, i'd say it's very rare that they actually get a fit roadie commit a crime then try to outrun them, although i do remember in another thread wondering whether it had actually ever happened.