BURBANK : Bikes Help Cut Some Crimes, Police Report

Police bicycle patrols on weekends over the summer boosted the confidence of downtown Burbank merchants and put a damper on some crimes, according to a city report. The patrols also gave police better flexibility to move through parking lots and crowded streets.

However, auto burglaries downtown--also called Burbank Village--were up from June 15 to Sept. 15 when the bike patrols were being used, according to Police Chief David P. Newsham’s report to the city manager. He speculated that they increased--up from 15 to 26 over the same period in 1992--because more cars are using the area’s parking garages.

The bike patrol was started as a pilot program this year to give police higher visibility, easier access to crowded and hard-to-reach areas, and an edge in fighting crime in parking lots and parking garages.

In his report, which has been sent to the City Council, Newsham said he intends to continue the bike patrol in the summer and for special events such as Burbank on Parade and Fourth of July celebrations. However, he said it would make little sense to expand the program further.

“Staffing of a continuous bike detail remains a dilemma,” Newsham wrote. “The Village is part of an existing patrol beat, but assigning patrol officers exclusively to the Village would decrease the level of service to the rest of the city.”

The pilot program cost $16,000, mostly for such special equipment as bikes and informal police uniforms.

The report also showed that incidents of auto theft in downtown Burbank were down, from 26 in the summer of 1992 to 24 in 1993. Cases of vandalism in downtown Burbank remained fairly steady, from nine during the same period in 1992 to 10 in 1993, according to the report.

“It is impossible to determine how many crimes were actually prevented by the presence of these officers,” Newsham wrote, adding that “as more traffic is lured into the area, we can expect an increase in the number of crimes to occur.”