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A bicycle officer can do almost anything a patrol car can.
OSU police officer Shawn Gibson, who has worked on OSU’s bike patrol for eight years, said if people try to run, the police will get them.
Gibson has only lost one car while trying to make a traffic stop.
“What people don’t understand is you have OSU, you have Stillwater, you have Payne County and you have OHP (Oklahoma Highway Patrol),” Gibson said. “If something happens here in the core, one of us is going to get you.”
Bike patrol started on campus in 1996 and Lt. Leon Jones was OSU’s first bike patrol officer, Gibson said.
Sixteen of the OSU Police Department’s 31 sworn officers are trained for the bicycle patrol.
Gibson said gamedays are the busiest times for the bicycle patrol.
He said the bike patrol is the primary responding unit because it is the only patrol that can get around campus efficiently.
“We run four bike officers on gamedays because with all the traffic and everything closed off, it’s real hard to get the cars in there,” Gibson said. “And bike officers are the only thing that can really reach the exterior things around the stadium.”
There are two ways a bicycle patrol officer can make an arrest, David Hildebrand, president of the governing board of International Police Mountain Bike Association, said in a phone interview.
“If you deploy to the area that you’re going to work in a car and you have your bike on the rack, you can call another unit over there after you’ve arrested somebody and asked them to stay with the person while you get your car and then transport them,” Hildebrand said. “Or you can call for a transport unit to come by and pick up your prisoner.”
Bicycles offer advantages people don’t realize, Kirby Beck, a founding member of International Police Mountain Bike Association and a former police officer, said in a telephone interview.
“Bikes can go a lot of places that cars can’t,” Beck said. “They can go in pedestrian areas, they can go in grassy areas, they can go through narrow alleys, they can go up and down sidewalks and between buildings, up and down stairs and into buildings, for that matter.”
Beck said bicycle patrol is the best of all worlds because a bicycle officer gets the personal contact a foot patrol officer would. It also has a speed advantage, getting around faster than foot patrol and also often faster than car units confined to the roadway.
Gibson said when on campus, the bicycle patrol can often get to calls faster than car units.
“We don’t have to worry about a lot of the traffic or cars in our way,” Gibson said. “We don’t have to stay on the roads. We can take alternate routes so a lot of times we can get there quicker.”
But Beck said there are limitations to what bicycle patrol can do.
“Well, you are confined to a smaller area,” Beck said. “If you have to respond clear across town, you can for a non-emergency call, but if it’s an emergency and you’re across town, you’re not going to get there in a timely manner.”
Another disadvantage Beck said is the amount of equipment bicycle patrol is able to carry.
Beck said most squad cars are equipped with laptop computers with access to record and wanted files but bicycle patrols are limited to portable radios.
Exposure and lack of cover and concealment can also be a problem for officers on bicycles, Beck said.
“Concealment keeps you from being seen,” Beck said. “Cover actually stops bullets. A car has the capability of stopping bullets. The bike offers you neither.”
Also, Beck said a police car has a reverse gear that can get an officer out of trouble but a bicycle does not.
Another limitation can be weather.
“If it’s driving rain it doesn’t make sense to be out — plus, it’s dangerous,” Hildebrand said. “Sleet, snow and any kind of ice, obviously you’re not going to be out because you’re not going to be able to stay upright anyway.”
Gibson said the OSU bicycle patrol rides all year round.
“In the winter time when it’s cold, we ride,” Gibson said. “We’re one of the very few that do, but we ride all year round.”
Gibson wrote the bicycle patrol training process. Training includes a Council Law Enforcement Education and Training accredited three-day school.
Training teaches basic riding skills, how to use the bicycle for law enforcement, what to carry, maintenance and how to ride on different types of terrain such as off-road, stairs and curbs, Gibson said.
Training also teaches about endurance, food and hydration.
Gibson instructs two to three bicycle schools each year and trains 70 to 75 percent of the state, with officers coming from Sand Springs, Jenks, Ponca City, Edmond and Guthrie to OSU for training, he said.
Training takes place around campus as well as on trails at Lake Carl Blackwell.
Beck said bicycle patrols are extremely effective and the biggest reason it’s effective is because of the stealth advantage.
“You can use your senses and hear, see and smell so much more,” Beck said. “In addition, because you’re on a bicycle, you are so quiet and if you’re riding around, people don’t know you’re there. You can ride right up on crimes in progress, ride up on suspicious people and ride up on dope deals and such.”
Gibson said he likes to ride his bicycle through parking lots looking for burglars because he can do it quietly and people often don’t know he’s an officer.
Beck said police on bicycles are professional riders and the public should know how important bicycle patrols are.
“Training is really an important part and I don’t know that the general public knows how complicated police biking can really be,” Beck said. “I think the general public needs to know that there is a lot of training that goes into it and it’s tougher than it looks.”
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