Feature — Police on Bikes
In this issue of CAMWEST News, we interview Senior Constable Dave Flood, a keen cyclist and an officer in the Parramatta police unit. He tells us how it all started, describes a typical day in the bike unit, and shares his thoughts on cycling in Western Sydney.
Dave, describe your typical working day.
The basis of our job is Beat police on bicycles. We use the bicycles as a more mobile resource in order to cover a larger area during the course of a 8 hour shift. The initial focus behind our duties is targeting car theft in the Parramatta Patrol. As it has turned out we are now dealing in with people on many fronts. Police have arrested people for assaults, drug possession and distribution, warrants, possession of firearms, brawls etc... On the bikes we have easy access to all areas of Parramatta and can chase a car down in todays traffic with relative ease or ride alongside a person who is running for as long as they wish to run. The bike police also contribute significantly to the intelligence processed through the station thus allowing us to identify active criminals and deal with them appropiately.
A shift usually starts with kitting up. Get on your appointments, getting your radio. That is followed by checking the computer system and personal pidgeon holes for any outstanding work from the previous shift.
We generally are allocated an hour at the start of the shift to attend to correspondence and other issues which may have been raised in the last 24 hours. In that hour we are assigned our duties for the day (e.g. targeting break, enter and steal offences in the Harris Park area).
We then go and retrieve there bikes and perform the basic checks before riding away. We follow the ABC theory. A = air for tyres, B = brakes (check for wear and adjustment), C = Cables (check for worn or fraid cables). A slow ride testing everything whilst leaving the station is then performed. Generally all members have been assigned their own bikes so, just like with your own personal bikes you know the set up and the characteristics of that bike.
We then leave the station and perform proactive duties on the bikes. On most occasions we will swept through all the carparks in the Parramatta Patrol. Those carparks are David Freter 3 levels, Erby 5 levels, Horwood Pl 5 levels, Civic place and Westfields carparks. A full patrol of westfields carpark is equivalent to 7klms. Attention is also paid to other areas of high population such as the church street mall and Parramatta Railway station.
Once these areas are patrolled and we know who is about we are then able to decide whether or not to remain in the CBD. If its quite we will head over to Harris Park, Westmead, North Parramatta and Northmead areas.
The only problem we have on bikes is when an arrest is made it is often some time before a police vehicle can attend and assist us by transporting that prisoner to the station. This may not seem much. However, if you have to wrestle and fight with an angry person for a few minutes you soon release just how long a minute can be. In many cases we have to consider that the arrest of a person is not a game and some of these people are extremely hard and will take whatever measures they can to avoid apprehension.
Once a person is arrested and they are conveyed to the police station for us the unfortunate but necessary part of the job takes place: paperwork. It will take about 2-4 hours to process a person and issue them with the charge. When I initially joined the service a person could be arrested and charged within the hour. Now with the changing trend police are made more accountable for people they have in custody. There are Standard Operating Procedures to follow and these are what takes time. The actual investigation time isn't any longer - it's getting to the interview.
If time permits after the completion of the charge process police will head back onto the road to assist in the reduction of anti-social behaviour. To date this year the bike/beats (14 constables) have made 246 arrests and laid more that 300 charges. The police I work with are highly motivated and a pleasure to work with simply because they enjoy what they do.
What kind of bikes does the Police Force use?
I am currently in the process of educating management level police to the importance of using better quality equipement. We are currently using Apollo bicycles with have done a fantastic job for us. some of those bikes have done over 5,000 k's over the past 4 1/2 years. We are also in possession of a Norco Bigfoot which was generously donated by the Harris Park safety committee. We have 11 bikes in total.
I am currently encouraging management into purchasing Avanti Barracuda's. They are well built with good running gear and are well priced. They are a sturdy bike which will serve us well.
How did the Police go back to bikes?
Parramatta was the first patrol to return to the use of bikes for active policing duties. It came about when Senior Constable Crowe who is now at Penrith found two Apollo bikes in the basement. He put the idea to his boss at the time that he could do a better job riding around on a pushbike than he could in a car. The boss put himself and an offsider on trail for 3 months. After 3 months they were made a permanent unit. After 12 months the unit was added to and we then had a total of 5 permant members. The impact of bike policing has been significant, Parramatta went from the 3rd worst area for crime in the state (the worst in the metropolitian area) to a ranking of 21st. It was the lowerest ranking this station has had the pleasure of for a long time.
So to simply answer the question, it came about through one man's idea which worked and the others just followed. We are still receiving phone calls from police at other stations wanting information in order to get their crews up and running. We have been considered the benchmark for bicycle policing.
What are some advantages of using bikes for policing?
The advantages are numerous. Every man and his dog can hear a Police Rodeo coming and most other people can pick the unmarked cars. Bikes however are silent (apart from me struggling for breath). They are quick, agile and can access areas cars can't. The advantage over foot patrols I guess can come down to a PR perspective. Police are more noticable on bikes and this offers some reassurance to members of the public. The other advantage is that on foot you are limited to how far you can walk away from the crime hot spots. On a bike you can be in North Parramatta when a job comes over and on most occasions can beat the car crews to the job (NB. might not be much good once we get there but we can beat them!).
How are you treated by other road users?
Car, truck, and bus drivers don't seem to care too much whether you are in uniform or not until they get pulled up. Most other road users find police on bicycles amusing, but the criminals of our area don't see the same humour.
Other cyclists will often welcome us because of the common ground we share, very little road. We often spend time in Parramatta Park and the riders in the park are a wonderful source of information. Most cyclists have been pretty good. Some still refuse to wear helmets.
What do you think cyclists can do to improve their lot?
Obey the road rules, they were put in place to save lives and avoid heartache for loved ones.
How could cycling facilities be improved in Western Sydney?
I personally have written letters away to the State Rail Authority. I put to them 2 suggestions. To this date I have still not received a reply. The first suggestion I put to them was to utilise the waste land which runs alongside the train lines in between stations. This would help get cyclists off the main roads and onto pathways accessible by cyclists only. If they were to undertake such a project I for one would start to ride to work but at this stage I refuse to ride along Windsor Road. It is too damm dangerous. [There are some RailTrail projects going on, such as the Parramatta to Liverpool link. See Bicycle NSW for more details - ed]
The 2nd notion I put to them was to convert some of the older single storey train carriages into bikes or disable only carriages. If any of you have tried to catch a mountains train from Penrith or Emu Plains on a weekend you will understand where I am coming from. On anyone of those early trains you could have up to 50 cyclists going up the mountain for a morning ride in the bush. I suggested that these carriages could have a useful purpose around the time of the Olmypics. Once again I am sure that if bikes on public transport were better accommodated more people would ride and we would not have the pollution problems we have now.
What are the plans for the bicycle unit?
More officers? Yes, hopefully. There aren't any spare police at the moment so we have to be patient.
Senior Constable Dave Flood's thoughts and opinions are just that: his own personal opinions. He does not speak for the NSW Police service. CAMWEST greatly appreciates his time.
CAMWEST editorial and related links.
Your Thoughts
So what do you think? Do you ride to work? Would you try it if you had better facilities? Do you have any tips to share? Let us know by mailing us at cycling (AT) camwest.org.au, and we‘ll publish your thoughts. Join our mailing lists.
