BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

sweet!

i am excited about this. at least something is being done.

Bike patrols in the city just make more sense than only car patrols... Cars would only be needed for hauling suspects in (queue paddy wagon xtracycles?). Bikes are more agile, and allow officers to better interact with the community. No parking issues, no traffic issues, less pollution, healthier cops, cheaper maintenance bill, cheaper repair bills, cheaper "fuel" bills.

Why don't we have more of what makes so much sense?

Wow, this just gave me a bad flash back. A friend from HS was a bicycle officer that used to ride in the east end. About 6 years ago he was ridding thru Garfield and was jumped by a gang! He was shot by one of the people that attacked him & then proceeded to shoot and kill two of his attackers. After the incident the Pgh police decided to stop the bike patrols in the east end...I'm glad to hear they have got them back on the bikes!

..

Cop-on-a-bike is like cop-on-the-beat, which is a great idea, for all the reasons that ejwme mentions.

Of course extra police costs money, and people don't want to pay for it.

(Cop-in-a-car is the only way you'll get rapid response to emergencies, and you can't trade that away.)

Not to diss the cop on bike, but cop on motorcycle seems to have a lot of the best of both. Cheaper, faster, more responsive than cars, out on the street. Pittsburgh seems to mainly use them for, what?, traffic?

I live in Highland Park/East Liberty (you know, depending what side of the street I'm on). I think I saw about three police cars just walking to my house from the bus stop.

I don't feel any safer. It just doesn't seem like a long term solution to me.

"Not to diss the cop on bike, but cop on motorcycle seems to have a lot of the best of both. Cheaper, faster, more responsive than cars, out on the street. Pittsburgh seems to mainly use them for, what?, traffic?"

This seems logical until you consider that moto cops drive excessively large Harleys which are really useless for anything other than parades and going in a straight line down a highway. They're ridiculously heavy, mechanically unreliable, and get lousier gas mileage than many subcompact automobiles.

Now if they switched to 400cc supermotards (like the bike The Girl W/Dragon Tattoo rides in the film, for you non-motorcycle folks) they'd be able to go places that only full suspension mountain bikes would even consider and cover urban streets more quickly than any police cruiser could.

More bicycle cops is still a good idea. Just need them to be used in a carefully coordinated strategy w/multiple vehicle types/modes that create a more nimble force able to both prevent and respond proportionately to the wide range of crime that occurs in any city.

For some reason, when my brain reads "cop on a bike" it immediately translates it to this.

For some reason, when my brain reads "cop on a bike" it immediately translates it to this.

Heh...I love Dave Shannon's work.

re; dooftram, +1 on "bagging" the Harleys.

Sounds like I may need to see that "Girl w/Dragon Tatoo" thing.

Im glad to hear it, id like to see more police on bikes, it just feels less 'marshal law' when they are in the world with the rest of us outside the crusiers.

On a personal note, i do believe they work because I got a ticketed by a bike cop for peeing behind the 31st street pub at 3 am one night.

They are stealthy.

Great to hear the bike-cop program is back. As an additional side benifit-- healthier cops!

bjanaszek: Oh my god, I need this book.

Amazon description:

When Duck gets the zany idea to ride a bike one day, each animal on the farm has a reaction. "M-o-o-o," says Cow. But what she's really thinking is, "A duck on a bike? That's the silliest thing I've ever seen!" Pig and Pig say "Oink," thinking all the while, "Duck is such a show-off!" But it's not until a crew of kids shows up and leaves their bikes lying about that the true feelings of all the animals come to light, and for one brief, glorious moment, the farm is a mad, mad world of two-wheeling road hogs (and chickens and horses and goats).

Ducks are like one of my favouritest animals, btw.

Not quite a tour-de-quack, but there is a tour-de-cluck.

http://vimeo.com/groups/8447/videos/13218875

On a personal note, i do believe they work because I got a ticketed by a bike cop for peeing behind the 31st street pub at 3 am one night.

That might be the best endorsement I've heard for anything, ever.

"I got a ticketed by a bike cop for peeing behind the 31st..."

Good police work, officer O'Malley.

Duck on a Bike is a favorite around our house.

One of things that parenthood has taught me is that there are some really, really cool kids books out there.

Not to steal anybody's thunder, but there has been a bike cop in East Liberty long before the wack-a-cyclist thing started in East Liberty.

It is a lady with helmet mount, usually rides the sidewalks?

Helmet mount what, gun?

Whoops, helmet mount camera. It is a big rectangular box stuck on her head.

The Pgh Police used to have a Community Oriented Police (COP) program. It had several small sub stations thought the city. They were mostly officers from the SWAT group and 22 of them were dedicated bicycle officers. The officers were not assigned to a specific neighborhood, they were directed to communities where problems surfaced and moved on after the problem was “solved”. It was a nice program. A few years ago the city had to realign all the zones police stations due to budget issues and the program went away. It was Mayor Luke that recently requested the bicycle officers brought back. Now each zone has 4 beat officers and 2 full time bicycle officers.

Pierce

Yep that's exactly who I saw. Ah well.