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New GCPD motorcycles turning heads

Published 11/20/2008 in News : Police

By STEPHANIE FARLEY

sfarley@gctelegram.com

Charles "Josh" Doull, master patrol officer for the Garden City Police Department, likes motorcycles and thought joining the police department's motorcycle patrol unit would be a good way to combine that like with his career.

The unit is the latest addition to the police department. The motorcycles debuted Nov. 8 in the Veterans Day parade, and then officers on motorcycles conducted traffic enforcement the day after that.

Three officers, including Doull, were chosen to operate the motorcycles. And so far, he said, the reaction toward the department's bikes has been mostly positive.

Doull's heard the question, "Hey, how long have we had those?"

The department purchased four motorcycles this summer at a total of $15,000, not including the training and equipment. Doull and his fellow officers graduated Nov. 7 from an 80-hour training class.

Since then, Doull's been helping with traffic enforcement and becoming more familiar with the bike. While there aren't a lot of differences between patrol in a vehicle and on a bike, there are a few: there are places a motorcycle can fit and travel that a regular patrol vehicle can't -- sometimes making it hard for motorists to notice when Doull is running traffic; the motorcycles are more exposed to the weather and elements; Doull can't transport prisoners on the back of the bike; and he doesn't have as big an office on his motorcycle as he did in his patrol car.

The most noticeable change, though, for Doull has been that the public seems to find the motorcycles more approachable than a regular vehicle. While patrolling in a construction zone, Doull said, one of the construction workers approached and thanked him for watching drivers in the work zone and keeping the area safe.

"People approach me," he said about being out on the new motorcycles.

As of Wednesday, with six days of patrolling, Doull and the motorcycle unit had given 22 warnings and 47 tickets.

Chief James Hawkins said the initial thought behind getting the motorcycles was that they'd be a good traffic enforcement tool, "we seem to do a lot of parades" and the motorcycles would be easier on gas than patrol vehicles -- he estimates they get twice, if not more, than the about 10 miles a gallon for patrol vehicles. And so far, he said, the new bikes have done all of that.

The motorcycles can patrol in areas that have high traffic congestion, where patrol vehicles sometimes can't maneuver too easily, he said.

Hawkins pointed to the intersection of Center Street and Kansas Avenue and how a patrol car might not want to park in the parking lot of Walgreens or another business because it takes up space and is noticeable.

"But you can sit there on a motorcycle," he said.

There are few limitations with the bikes, Hawkins said, but one thing the department will try not to do with the motorcycles is high-speed pursuits or chases, which would put the officer in too much jeopardy. The motorcycles also won't operate in bad weather, he said.

Hawkins said everything fell together with the department being able to purchase the motorcycles, adding they bought the bikes at a reduced cost from an agency that wasn't using the four motorcycles and had just been letting them sit there, gathering dust.

And as long as interest holds in officers riding them, he said, the department plans to continue using the motorcycles, hoping to solicit interest in another officer for the unit sometime around next summer.

The process of getting the motorcycles ready has taken from about July to this month, with the department getting the motorcycles cleaned up and ensuring they're running properly. The motorcycles also had to be equipped and officers sent to training in Wichita put on by the Kansas Highway Patrol.

There have been some surprised motorists, Hawkins said, when one of the motorcycles pulls them over. It's not that the department is practicing "gotcha" type policing, he said, but there are advantages to the motorcycles being able to fit into various places and areas and not being able to be seen as easily.

Police Sgt. Michael Reagle also has seen the public's reaction to the bikes, saying every time somebody sees them go by, "it gets a lot of heads turning."

"It's new," he said. "It's a new concept."

Reagle relates the newness and interest in the motorcycles to when the police department started adding bicycles to its patrol unit in the 1990s.

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