Community support and partnership with local business associations has resulted in the purchase of three new police mountain bikes for the Quesnel RCMP. A special thank you to Coun. Coralee Oakes for her hard work in coordinating this project with local businesses. Donations came from the Quesnel Downtown Business Association, the West Quesnel Business Association and the South Quesnel Business Association.
“We are ecstatic with the new bikes,” Cst. Krista Vroylk of the Quesnel RCMP said.
“The donation of the new police bikes is a classic example of the power of community. This town always amazes me in its ability to work together to get the job done.
“We are so grateful to the participating business associations for their support of this project.”
With 12 regular trained police officers and three auxiliary police officers trained in the operation of police mountain bikes, the RCMP were really keen to use this method of policing.
The old fleet of police bikes were more than five years old and were not mechanically sound enough to use for even routine patrols.
The gear shift on one of the bikes was such that you could not shift with any confidence that the chain would remain intact.
The new bikes allow officers to do their job with confidence and efficiency. Conducting police work from a mountain bike not only allows them to patrol places they may not normally be able to get to – such as certain areas of the riverwalk, but also allows officers to observe things in a more stealthy manner including open liquor and drugs.
“I can’t tell you how many times we roll up on someone doing drugs. There is no doubt that police mountain bike patrols result in the seizure of illegal street drugs,” Vroylk said.
“If we were in a vehicle, the smell may go undetected or we may not be in a position where we observe drug transactions. It’s amazing the things you can see, hear and smell from a bike.”
The bikes arrived just in time for Billy Barker Days and have already been put to good use. Quesnel Bike Patrol members seized more alcohol, more drugs and made more arrests than any other unit at the Quesnel Detachment.
Quesnel RCMP Bike Patrol Officers have already been successful in apprehending theft suspects from local merchants within minutes of receiving the call.
In addition to good old fashion police work, the police mountain bikes allow officers to have a unique presence in the areas they patrol. Police presence is paramount to public safety and crime reduction.
Police officers are very approachable on bikes and Cst. Vroylk regularly gets waved over by concerned citizens who have information about certain criminal activities they otherwise may never have reported to police.
Members of the Quesnel RCMP Bike Unit are also very active in the City of Quesnel’s positive ticketing program, where they recognize citizens for doing positive things.
It’s often as simple as stopping to talk to a group of youth who are engaged in something positive.
Bike patrol members issue positive “tickets” accompanied by free drink coupons from local merchants.
Quesnel RCMP Members will continue to
conduct bike patrols of the City throughout the
summer and early fall months.