I was lured out to the Tri-County Gun Club by four words: bike cops shooting guns. I found myself last Thursday afternoon standing in a gravel lot somewhere on the outskirts of Sherwood, flanked by 15 guys with giant calves and 9mm glocks. Some wore tiny black ankle socks stitched with “police,” one had a tattoo of the Punisher, all had very macho bikes—decked out Treks and Cannondales. This was the target practice segment of national Law Enforcement Bicycle Association‘s annual training.
Here’s the first thing I learned: bike cops don’t actually shoot guns from their bikes. Like other officers, they rarely shoot their guns at all. But when they do, they can’t ready, aim, fire while still pedaling (though that would be AWESOME). Instead they drop their bikes and fire like “normal” police, except that bike cops are often worse shots because their bodies are coursing with adrenaline from riding.
“Accuracy is an issue here – a bazillion shots down range isn’t going to do us any good! And rounds down range means citizens who don’t need to get involved!” shouted Joe Schilling, the training director. “Stay on the bike until it is no longer a tool for you!”
- Dan Sloan
- Pure Trektosterone.
Portland has only four full time bike cops (including the very polite Robert Pickett), but has 150 officers trained to ride bikes so they can patrol parades or protests.
“It’s a really good tool to work on street-level crimes that bring down neighborhood livability: drugs, drinking in public, prostitution. Sometimes people don’t want to come up to a police car. But someone on a bike, especially in Portland, is more accessible,” explained Portland Police spokeswoman Mary Wheat, herself a former bike cop, as the first officers mounted their bikes for the skills test. They were expected to ride a mile through the dirt around traffic cones, complete two full and complete stops at stop signs (“Because it’s important for everyone to obey traffic laws,” noted Wheat), throw their bike to the ground and shoot a target all under three minutes and thirty seconds.
Just like in actual life, things in the training didn’t go ideally. Just watch the short video.
Once again smirk uses the word “macho” when she’s referring to people who can ride bikes faster than her.
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/po…
In what would otherwise be an interesting piece on bike cops, she interjects a useless opinion about the relative masculinity of two types of bike frames. Showing once again her lack of knowledge on the topic she talks about.
If you want to see a truly macho bike rider: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wb8bAl1P-N0/SaaY…
http://imgfave.lg1x8.simplecdn.net/image_c…
And for the record, anyone who can off-road a mile, drop a cardboard man in a hail of gunfire AND obey traffic laws is pretty macho in my book.
At first I thought they had missed the target completely since the bullets seemed to be hitting the dirt behind the target, but that isn’t actually that bad.
Good on the cops for letting you tag along with a video camera. That footage was great.
I had the opportunity to meet Officer Pickett at last Sunday’s Parkways while I was tabling to Stop the CRC. I have to say, he’s an unbelievably kind, compassionate and dedicated public servant.
I’m very happy to have him patrolling Portland’s streets and wish him well with the expected expansion of his family!