BPS adds more officers to summer bike patrol
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/07/2013 (4603 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
They’re back on the bike saddle again.
And the arrival of two extra members for the Brandon Police Service Mountain Bike Unit means the team will log more hours pushing pedals.
“We’ll be more visible downtown, we’ll be more visible at events, we’ll be more visible on the bike paths, we’ll be more accessible to the public,” bike patrol member, Const. Kirby Sararas, said.
This marks the ninth year for the bike patrol which faded after a stint in the 1990s but was revived in 2005.
The season began on Tuesday and will extend through September, weather permitting.
This year, the force’s two school resource officers have been added to the group to bring its number to four.
Adding school resource officers was a natural way to extend their community policing duties into the summer when school is out, Sararas said.
“It made a lot of sense to put them on the bikes in the summer, just as a kind of a continuance of what they do all year round,” Sararas said.
Sararas is joined on the team by veteran member Const. Dave Scott, Const. Travis Foster and Const. Dana McCallum.
This is the first year on bike patrol for McCallum, who prepared for a summer of pedalling with a few practice runs last week of 28 to 30 kilometres each.
“I’m feeling good now,” McCallum said. “I’m looking forward to getting into the parks and meeting members of the community,”
The extra bike officers will allow the unit to provide more consistent patrolling in the evenings than in years past.
“Now, with four of us, there should be at least one or two of us out in the evenings,” Sararas said.
Bike patrol members will tour parks and bike paths and be at special events such as Music in the Parks.
“Anywhere where there’s a lot of pedestrian traffic because we like to be accessible and people like to stop and chat,” Sararas said.
Besides allowing officers to meet the public, the bikes have the advantages of being quick, quiet and small enough to get into areas that police cars can’t.
“We beat cruisers to certain calls,” Sararas said. “We can take back lanes and shortcuts.”
Among their duties is to enforce liquor laws, but they’ve been known to hand out tickets for failing to wear a seatbelt and for cellphone use while driving.
Bike patrol members will also be among the first to tweet when the BPS joins Twitter soon.
» ihitchen@brandonsun.com