(WELLINGTON COUNTY, ON) – The warm weather is here and the Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police will be patrolling their communities on their new Rocky Mountain police-optioned bicycles. Six bicycles were recently purchased from the “Bicycle Tailor”, a local business located on St. Andrew Street East, Fergus.
There are currently 14 trained bicycle patrol officers with 10 more receiving training by the end of May. The training is a full 3 days in-length and is delivered by certified instructors, one of which Wellington has among its police ranks. Patrolling on a bicycle has many advantages over a cruiser such as being able to pedal the “Rails to Trails”, traverse pathways or forested areas, riding in parks, residential and business areas, at community initiatives or large scale special events. Bicycles will also provide many strategic enforcement opportunities for the Detachment.
Police on bicycle patrol has been widely recognized as an effective tool among police services. Bicycles allow police officers the ability to quietly cover extended distances in a short period of time in our more populated areas, while getting to locations where conventional response methods are not suitable. In addition, police on bicycles are more accessible to the citizens in our communities and are a “Greener” mode of transportation. Officers will be visible at community events, making it a lot easier for an officer to be approached or stop to interact with local residents.
Wellington County Detachment Commander Inspector Scott Lawson says “We are excited to expand and formalize our Bicycle Patrol Program here in Wellington County. Partnering with the County and the owners of the “Bicycle Tailor” has been tremendously successful. Our cruisers will be outfitted with carrier racks to transport the bicycles to all our municipalities. This is a great way to have officers more visible in the communities we serve, be more proactive at community initiatives while still being fully operational”, he said. “Contributing to the overall health and wellness of our officers is an added bonus” says Lawson, “We have more officers volunteering for the program than we ever expected”, he said.
Once the training is complete pairs of officers will be scheduled bicycle patrol duties throughout Wellington County.
