By Richard Holt –
Toronto Police serve and protect. And essential to their role of making Downtown a safe place to live is the bike patrol.
Constable Charles Stern, a bike patrol officer at 51 Division, wheels out all the benefits of policing the city on bikes.
“One advantage of using bikes is the sheer accessibility for the public. They can be talking to a police officer when he is on the street as opposed to when he is in a car. Also, bike patrol lends itself to troubled areas where cars have trouble getting into.”
He explains, “We have several areas in 51 Division where accessibility with a bicycle makes it more easy than going into an area with a car. Places such as St. Jamestown, north and south Regent Park and the large parks Downtown (Moss Park, Allan Gardens) are much more accessible on a bike than even officers walking. Coupled with that we can respond to calls within a three or four block area as quick or quicker than a car can.”
At 51 Division, there are between 30 and 35 bike patrol officers. There are three shifts—morning, afternoon and night—with five or six officers out per shift, including a three-hour overlap.
They ride 21-speed mountain bikes that take a lot of pounding as the officers rack up the kilometres. Plus, all bike officers have taken bike training—there’s a two-day course where they learn emergency stopping, how to take care of the bike, and safety tips for riding in the Downtown core.
One important way the bike patrol serves the community is through direct patrols.
Stern explains, “We are given directed patrols on our shifts and these are coming from citizens and residents and businesses. For example, a citizen will call in and say ‘we have problems with drug dealers across the street in this particular area’ or ‘our cars are being broken into in this spot.’”
“As we ride our bikes we will target those spots. We will also target areas with traffic problems—people turning in the wrong direction, construction, etc. as well as parks. We have a lot of people doing the wrong things in parks so there’s a lot of by-law enforcement there.”
The division boundaries are Bloor St. to the north, Yonge St. to the west, the Don Valley on the east and Lake Ontario to the south. On any given day Constable Stern and his fellow officers will cover these boundaries twice.
A typical shift for the bike patrol officers would be to check the directed patrols when they come on shift (plus they are given a sheet and it tells them what they should do and what they should be looking out for i.e. stolen cars). Then they hit the streets—a huge area to cover.
Key to police being effective and successful is working with the community to help fight crime. The fact that the officers are on bikes is appreciated and makes the work easier. “For the most part,” says Stern, “the community groups and citizens appreciate us being on bikes because it’s one of those things where we are still approachable: ‘Hi officer, how are you?’”
“We can stop and talk. We are not in a vehicle running up gas. On top of that it’s simple—we’re out there, we’re showing a flag and we are basically showing the individuals that are there for the wrong reasons that we are around. We’re quiet, we’re stealthy and we can sneak up on you if you are doing the wrong things.”
“If you asked citizen groups what entity serves their needs the most and the best,” Stern continues, “most will come back and say the foot patrol and the bike patrol.
“Why? Well, if you get into a police car and are doing a 10-hour day there will very, very little time to do a general patrol. It’s one call after another. You are inundated with doing reports with calls for service. In this division we are very busy. So for us who are doing the bike patrol because we are not directly attached to the radio we have time to look into the places where there are problems starting to unfold.”
To be most effective, says Stern, bike patrol officers should be seasoned individuals with an acute sense of street smarts. This goes a long way in helping make the officer successful and enjoy his work.
“It’s great job,” he says. “You have contact with the public, you hear positive feedback, you get to talk to people that are thankful you are there as opposed to people who don’t want you around because they are up to no good. I’ve done undercover, several stints in major crime and plainclothes.”
“From a policeman’s point of view, as far as the effectiveness of the job and the enjoyment of the job, bike patrol is by far the best job on the force. It’s the best because you’re not tied to the radio, plus you get a lot of exercise plus you have the ability to go to places in a very short period of time.
“You’re addressing a problem almost instantaneously and you have a fairly substantial impact on the problems that you are dealing with.”