Crackdown Halts Bike Officers’ Training on Dirt Trails in City Parks

Prodded by citizen complaints, city officials have informed the Los Angeles Police Department’s bike unit that it is not above the law--specifically a long-standing ordinance banning bikes from hiking paths.

The result? LAPD officers can no longer train on dirt paths in Elysian and Griffith parks, where the department for decades has sent bicycle officers to learn how to navigate tough terrain.

City officers aren’t the only ones affected. The small bike patrol affiliated with the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department also has been forced to stop training--on the very grounds its officers are responsible for patrolling.

The ban threatens to reignite a smoldering feud over the use of bikes on mountain trails that first flared in 2000. A proposal to open the paths to cyclists touched off conflicts with hikers and equestrians, who said they feared trail damage, erosion and collisions with two-wheeling daredevils.

Some bikers even reported physical threats. The mounting tension caused the city to back off on its plan to open the trails to bicycles--making Los Angeles city parks among the few areas in the county where trails are off-limits to bikers.

Trying to head off a repeat of that squabble, the sudden ban on police training has politicians and park advocates gingerly considering a compromise.

Meanwhile, LAPD bike trainers and the park rangers who work out with them may be forced into an alternate training locale, possibly in Burbank. (In a strange irony, the rangers are permitted to ride on park trails while performing their official duties, but not while training for their work.)

“We’ve just really got no idea right now where we are going to get the training in,” said Sgt. Vance Bjorklund, the bicycle unit’s lead trainer, who hasn’t been able to hold a class since October. “One thing we do know: Unless they change the law, there’s no place to train off-road in Los Angeles.”

Police cyclists have trained since the early 1980s on the dirt fire roads of Elysian Park, near the Police Academy and Dodger Stadium. They also trained on nearby trails in 4,000-acre Griffith Park.

They’d probably still be taking instruction in both parks if not for Christine Peters, a Hollywood costume designer who lives on the eastern slope of Elysian Park, just yards from a steep dirt trail.

An Alarming Example

Peters was alarmed four months ago when her boyfriend saw a group of LAPD officers training on the trail. The trainees, Peters said, tore down the precipitous hill at high speeds. One flew off his bike, and paramedics had to be called.

“This guy was being yelled at by his superior to go fast,” said Peters, a member of a group of park advocates commissioned by the city two years ago to study the bike issue. “He was being told to virtually kill himself. That’s not exactly what we want to see up here. It’s not safe for them, and it’s not safe for people walking here.”

Aware of the bicycle ban from her earlier advocacy work, Peters promptly e-mailed the head of the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park. He informed LAPD officials, who took the matter to the city attorney and the Recreation and Parks Department. The department determined that police were violating the ban on trail riding. Soon after, the LAPD’s bike unit was forced to suspend training in both parks.

“Suddenly, there was no training,” Bjorklund said. About nine times a year, Bjorklund directs small, weeklong riding classes.

The sergeant said the training can get pretty rough. Officers occasionally take serious spills, and there have been a few broken bones and concussions. Trainees even wear bulletproof jackets for added protection against accidents. Still, Bjorklund said, an element of danger is a necessary part of rigorous police training.

The bike patrol does most of its training on paved streets, the kind its officers usually work. But California police training standards call for all officers to prepare for occasional forays onto dirt and hilly terrain. To meet that requirement, each trainee spends about three hours on mountainous dirt paths.

“We train there just in case our officers do have to go onto dirt surfaces, with all the trails and ruts,” said Bjorklund, who argues that police should be exempt from the trail-riding ban. “After all, we are there to protect people.”

With just those sentiments in mind, Griffith Park-area City Councilman Tom LaBonge and other city leaders are seeking a compromise. LaBonge broached the subject of amending the law at a recent neighborhood meeting, only to find stiff resistance.

Hoping for a Compromise

“Obviously, keeping the police from training was not the intent when the ordinance was come up with. That’s just ridiculous,” said LaBonge aide Erik Sanjurjo.

But some park advocates worry that allowing police on the trails will open the floodgates, eventually giving all mountain bikers full access.

“There are already lots of people riding illegally, and we don’t see the police doing much about that,” said Peters, speaking as a man rode his mountain bike up a dirt path behind her and into the hills of Elysian Park.

Peters has perhaps her strongest ally in City Councilman Ed Reyes, whose district encompasses Elysian Park.

Acknowledging that he is in the difficult position of trying to support law enforcement while making park users happy, Reyes has made it clear that he is in no mood to budge--not even for police.

“Right now I don’t see opening up the trails for bikes,” the councilman said. “There are other park areas where the police can train. They can go somewhere else.”