Deputies Set to Patrol on All-Terrain Bikes
Sheriff’s deputies in West Hollywood are starting to train this week on all-terrain bikes to patrol the 2-square-mile city nestled between Los Angeles and Beverly Hills.
Deputy Sean Collinsworth, who wrote the bike-patrol proposal, is training the deputies. “On a bike, you hear things, you smell things,” he said. “You can go more places than in a car, down alleys, through parks, walkways, places inaccessible to cars.”
The bike patrol is based on a successful program in Seattle, where 28 officers ride bikes. Seattle policeman Paul Grady said the arrest rate of Seattle’s bicycle officers is four times that of officers in two-person cars.
The city bought the bicycles but deputies are paying up to $400 for their own equipment, such as riding shorts, water bottles, tire repair kits and nylon gun belts.
The Sheriff’s Department hopes to have the program in full swing by the end of this month.
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