Mountain bike cops in California
The Mercury News posted an article yesterday about the El Cerrito police department and their growing use of mountain bikes for patrol activities. Of course I’ve seen plenty of mountain bike cops before but this article brought up some interesting questions in my mind.
First, one officer quoted in the article, riding off road in a park and passing hikers and joggers, says “Oh, they yield all right.” So my question is, are bike cops above the IMBA and (general) park rules that say mountain bikers should yield to all other trail users? Of course in an “emergency” hikers should pull over to the side of the trail to allow the officer to pass (just like in a car!) but this doesn’t seem fair at other times. Maybe I should outfit my bike to look like a police bike so hikers and equestrians yield to ME 
Speaking of police bikes, I also didn’t realize most departments use special mountain bikes. Apparently the bike of choice is the 24-speed ‘Fuji Patrol’ mountain bike and I even found one website that sells “tactical mountain bikes” and accessories. My favorite photo on the site is of a guy in full military battle dress uniform (including kevlar helmet) riding through a rocky stream (posted above). Is the Army Bicycle Corps poised for a renaissance using modern mountain bike technology? Let’s hope so.
It sounds like the bikes work great for fighting crime in urban environments since officers are more agile and can sneak up on perpetrators more easily. I’ve even seen mountain bikes used indoors at public places like malls and office buildings so they must be well suited to the task. The officers also carry around up to 20 pounds of gear on their bikes which makes maneuvering a bit more challenging - something I hadn’t considered before.
Riding your mountain bike and getting paid to do it? Sounds pretty sweet.
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June 11th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I received an email from an officer with the El Cerrito PD clearing up the quote about yielding. Apparently the quote was in reference to traffic enforcement and vehicle yielding, not hiker yielding as the Mercury News article suggested. Bicycle officers are indeed instructed to follow IMBA rules about yielding to pedestrians on the trail.