San Ysidro Welcomes Officers Who Pedal to an Innovative Beat

Elizabeth Cabrera stopped swinging the jump rope and walked hesitantly toward the police officer who was handing out stickers. The 10-year-old wasn’t sure how to approach him. She had never seen police officers patrol her apartment complex on bicycles.

But eventually children flocked around Officers Richard Ensign and Brad Phelps of the San Diego Police Department, admiring their bicycles, and by the time the pair headed off, making an addition to their detail.

“He’s my backup,” Ensign said, pointing to a 3-year-old boy on a tricycle behind him.

Community Liaison

This kind of interaction between the children and officers, and the acceptance by the community, is what the Southern Division had in mind when it put the cops-on-bikes idea into action.

In the three weeks since the detail began operating, it has become San Ysidro’s newest attraction, and a liaison between the community and the Police Department.

“The real plus is the interaction that you have with people,” said Lt. John Gregory, who, along with Sgt. Ken Hargrove, came up with the plan. “People are not scared to go talk to an officer on a bicycle.”

Silvia Padilla of San Ysidro said she thinks the bicycles are a good means of patrolling apartment parking lots because small children often play there and patrol cars can be dangerous. She also said that people find it easier to talk to officers who aren’t in a car.

The 18-speed, all-terrain bicycles are equipped with everything a patrol car or a motorcycle carries, yet citizens feel more comfortable approaching the officers.

“They are still seen as authority figures, but also as actual human beings,” said Capt. Bob Williams, the Southern Division’s commanding officer.

Feel More Appreciated

That in turn makes the officers feel more appreciated, and gives the department a better image, Ensign said.

The program is modeled after a similar one started two years ago by the Police Department in Seattle, and it will probably be expanded to include four bicycles in the next two weeks.

Ensign and Phelps, who ride the bikes to and from the Southern Division station each day, are in top physical condition, one of the reasons they were chosen to form the detail. Both ride bicycles as part of their physical fitness programs and as a hobby.

Ensign had been biking regularly eight months before the detail was formed; Phelps had been for two months.

Although public relations is an important part of the project, it is not the only reason the bike detail has been successful.

The two officers stick fairly close to the area near the San Ysidro Port of Entry. The international border crossing is considered the busiest in the world, meaning patrol cars get stuck in traffic.

“We are able to cover a greater distance than (officers) on foot, but not as much as with a car,” Ensign said. “But we are able to go places where a vehicle cannot. Most of the crime is going down outside the public eye, around a corner or on a walkway.”

No Parking Required

The pedestrian walkway at the border has been an area where the bike detail has been especially effective.

For example, officers in a patrol car must take time to park and lock their vehicles. That sometimes allows people engaged in illegal practices, such as “wildcatters”--who illegally offer transportation to tourists--time to flee. Phelps and Ensign can ride up to them without being noticed.

Wildcatters have been a major problem for the cab drivers who operate legally in the area, but since the bike patrol was started, the problems have decreased.

“They are very effective,” said Vincent Ortiz, president of the South Bay Cab Drivers Assn. “They are pretty good guys.”

The cabbies have gotten to know the officers better because they feel more at ease talking to them than to an officer in a car, Ortiz said.

Recently, several cab drivers approached Ensign and Phelps and tipped them off about a heroin deal, and the officers were able to arrest the suspect, said Williams, the commanding officer.

Phelps said he feels that without the interaction he and his partner have developed with the community, the cabbies would never have come up to them.

Williams said the success of the program and its acceptance by San Ysidro residents has sparked interest in other divisions. The two officers are temporarily working in downtown San Diego, where they made an arrest Tuesday.

The bike detail will be taken to Balboa Park, and both Ensign and Phelps feel it should be expanded.

“I love the bikes,” Phelps said. “I can’t put into words how it feels to ride the bike and work.”