THOUSAND OAKS : Deputies to Get 2 Mountain Bikes

Pooling their money for their own protection, 17 Thousand Oaks merchants have donated two heavy-duty mountain bikes to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department for bicycle patrols on Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

Fitted with high-powered lights and tough shock absorbers, the two $750 Raleigh Police Specials will allow deputies to cruise stealthily down the boulevard’s business strip, where crime has increased recently, according to one of the donors.

“They’re pretty beefy bikes, and they’ll take a lot of abuse,” said Dennis Carlson, owner of Carlson Building Materials.

Carlson and others donated $100 apiece to pay for the bikes, which will be delivered to the Sheriff’s Department on Nov. 15 from Mark’s Conejo Cyclery, Carlson said.

The extra money will go toward repairs.

“We’re real pleased at the support of the business community along Thousand Oaks Boulevard,” said Lt. Mike Brown, who is working on a community policing plan for the area.

Two specially trained deputies will be sent out on bike patrols as needed, Brown said.

“But we don’t have enough officers to assign them full time to a bicycle patrol. We’d have to take them out of patrol cars, and we’re spread pretty thin. We’ll use the best mode of transportation we think is necessary for a given duty.”

The department’s two bike-trained deputies have been patrolling periodically on reconditioned bikes that were unclaimed stolen property.

But those bikes tend to break down more often than the new bikes are expected to, Brown said.