The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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Bike patrol rookies took training where and when they could this week, as mud and ice and the threat of more winter weather complicated training exercises.

Emporia Police Department bike instructors Lt. John Koelsch and Jeff Eubank took new bike officers Todd Ayer and Mike Dunn to Emporia State University and adjacent Wilson Park to train Tuesday when the sky was sunny and the wind was brisk.

Ayer, who has been waiting for an opening on the bike patrol, is a 15-year veteran at EPD; Dunn has been there two years.

Addition of the two will bring the unit up to four officers.

“The department’s short-handed, and that means we’re short-handed,” Koelsch explained. At times, the unit has had up to 6 officers.

Koelsch has been in charge of bike patrol since the late Bob Rodriguez, then chief of police, encouraged Koelsch to organize a bike unit 15 years ago.

Its first formal assignment was to police a downtown carnival, where townspeople gave the officers a warm welcome. Within 30 minutes of their debut, they proved their value as a fast-response team when an emergency call came in from the 1300 block of Merchant Street. The bike officers, taking shortcuts and bypassing traffic, arrived on the scene several minutes before cars could get there.

The unit quickly attracted enthusiastic officers, eager to participate, and many of them stayed on long-term.

“Jeff and Ed (Owens) really are the ones that drove the unit,” Koelsch said. “They’re the ones that really made it successful.”

Owens, promoted to sergeant several years ago, returned to the streets in a patrol car. Mark Lake, another member of the first bike team, recently resigned from the unit.

It was not difficult for Koelsch to find new recruits.

This week, the bike officers took advantage of upper-40s temperatures at a hilly area around Emporia State University and Wilson Park.

It was not enough that the new recruits already were fit and knew how to ride bikes.

The lieutenant also was fit and had extensive bike experience — riding often in the Bike Across Kansas event and logging 2,000 to 3,000 miles a year cycling for pleasure — when he organized the bike patrol. Koelsch trained in Omaha before hitting the streets in Emporia.

“In Omaha, I found out I didn’t know squat about bicycling,” Koelsch said. “In that 40 hours, I learned more than I ever did in 10 years.”

Those skills were what Koelsch and Eubank aimed to teach Ayer and Dunn this week.

On Tuesday, Eubank took Ayer and Dunn to the bottom of the hill on Highland Street to give them the physical experience of pumping hard up a steep hill before switching muscle groups and running laterally up another hill.

“They’re going to have to ride as hard as they can,” Koelsch said. “They’ll ride into the park a little ways, then they’re going to get off their bike and run up to me. They’re going to have rubber legs.”

Both of the younger men ran up to Koelsch without struggling much, but obviously noticing how heavy their legs felt. The lesson learned was to pace themselves as they pumped.

“You don’t want to ride 100 percent because no matter what kind of shape you’re in, you’re not going to be able to respond 100 percent when you get to the call,” Koelsch said.

With shaky legs and panting from extreme exertion, a bike officer could not, for example, help a fellow officer in an emergency.

“If you can’t carry on a normal conversation, then you’re probably riding too fast,” Koelsch said.

The bike patrol offers the department another means to police the city. Bike officers are not as easily seen as patrol cars, they often can outdistance the cars in reaching police calls, and they have easy access to talk to citizens and promote good will, among other assets.

“The idea is we can get places and not be seen. That’s how we’re effective,” Koelsch said. “We make a lot of arrests downtown in the bar area in the spring and in the fall.”

Their scope, however, covers the whole town. On a slow day, bike officers may ride 25 to 30 miles; responding to a call, they may ride from the downtown to the country club at a fast pace.

“We don’t have to take the streets to get to a call,” Koelsch said. “If we need to get from Point A to Point B, we’ll take the shortcut. ... We can zip right up to wherever it is. We can get through” where police cars cannot.

Eubank told the men to slow down a bit within two or three blocks of the call location to prepare for switching muscle groups.

Later, Eubank talked to them about braking quickly and safely, then illustrated the technique several times himself.

He pointed to a small boy racing a 20-inch bike around a hilly parking area nearby.

“One day, you’ll be as good as that little tike over there,” Eubank teased the pair.

The rookie bike officers soon were wheeling downhill, each coordinating their feet positions and handbrakes while positioning their weight over the rear tire to counterbalance the effect of the brakes. It was an exercise they performed repeatedly, even though on the first try both managed to do the instant braking smoothly, without tipping, skidding or sailing over the handlebars.

The new bikers will need to continue the nutrition and exercise regimens that they’ll develop independently.

“They’ll realize what they need to do on their own,” Koelsch said. “They’ll be in so much better shape.”

Peak condition is essential to be part of this unit. Though the police bikes are lightweight — 21 or 22 pounds — the equipment they carry more than compensates for bike’s weight. Duty belts weigh between 18 and 21 pounds, depending upon size of the officer; bulletproof vests add more weight and restrict movement; an assortment of other accoutrements worn by the officers or strapped to the bicycles add to the load.

In spring, fall and winter, wind chill is always a factor; in the summer, heat strokes can, and have, become an issue.

Beyond that, however, the job satisfaction is great, Koelsch said.

Policing from a bicycle seat brings the officers into close contact with the public.

“They get to talk to people,” Koelsch said. “They just love it, but it’s not an easy job.”

And the unit can provide the same policing — almost — done by officers driving traditional patrol cars.

“We’ll go anywhere a patrol car is needed. That’s not an issue. The bike’s just a tool,” Koelsch said.

“The only thing we usually don’t take is vicious dog calls.”