History

In 1996 the Mount Horeb Bike Patrol started as a trial program with a rough start. We had no budget and had to use our personal bicycles. In 1997 we purchased one mountain bike with all of the extras and in 1998 we added one more. We primarily used the patrol for special events and parades.

Benefits of Mountain Bike Patrol

The bike patrol has proved to be beneficial to the Mount Horeb Community and is based on the Community Oriented Policing Philosophy. The bike patrol has added a high police visibility in many areas of the village that are not accessible to squad cars. At the same time, we use the patrol in a way to meet and greet people by handing out a community policing packet that was constructed by the bike patrol officers. This packet contains all important village information, phone numbers, yearly calendar events, and neighborhood watch information. Patrolling on a mountain bike gives the officer a great deal of mobility and enables the officers to be unpredictable to would-be criminals. Our patrol has a wide range of planned use: patrolling school grounds, patrolling the Military Ridge Bike Trail, and patrolling the regular downtown area and village streets. We have also conducted traffic enforcement on bike in the Main Street area. We, as bike patrol officers, would call out violators who do not yield or stop for pedestrians in the cross walks and the regular patrol squads make the needed traffic stops.

Equipment and Staffing

The Mount Horeb Police Department Mountain Bike Patrol has a total of two bicycles that are used for patrol. The older of the two bikes is a “Giant ATX 870” with front suspension. The second bike is a “Gary Fisher, Big Sir Model” and it, too, has front suspension. Both bikes have small EMS kits that are in police bags mounted on racks on the rear of the bikes. The bikes have high quality components that will withstand the rugged abuse associated with police detail. Bike Officers have two different colored polo shirts; black and white. The white being for daytime riding and black being for night riding. We also have insulated nylon jackets and pants for colder weather. The uniforms are marked with silk screened letters that spell “POLICE” and the back and have embroidered badges and names of the officers on the front. The bike patrol is primarily used in late spring, summer and early fall.

Requirements

All officers selected for this patrol should be in excellent health and physical condition and be able to pass required inter-departmental firearms and other required training. Officers that are selected must have the approval of the Chief of Police and be certified within one year of joining the program by attending a Basic Police Mountain Bike Class. Certified Cyclists belong to the Law Enforcement Bicycle Association.

Requests For Information

Anyone requesting information on the Mount Horeb Police Bike Patrol Team should contact Officer Blaine Hall at the police department. You make also contact COPS by clicking the icon below.

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