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The College’s department of public safety has
come up with a new way of patrolling the campus and increasing
its visibility among students. The department’s “Bike
Patrol” became operational last May, just before Commencement.
The brainchild of Public Safety Director Jeffrey Wilcox,
the patrol will be eventually operating on a 24-hour basis.
Lt. Thomas Foley, a longtime road biking enthusiast, took
the idea and developed
the program. Foley consulted with regional police departments and universities
with existing bike patrols. He then enrolled two of his officers, John Fournier
and John Melkonian, in COBWEB (“Cops on Bikes with Education for Bicyclists”)
training. “They enjoyed the class,” Foley said, “and they got
a lot of information.”T
he patrol uses a specially designed policing bike known
as the Mongoose which features 24 gears, a necessity for
a campus made of steep hills. Foley feels
the bike patrol will help improve public safety’s response time. “You
can get to places on campus a lot faster,” he says. “You can go over
grass and down stairs if necessary. But the other thing is that it gets involved
with the community policing aspect. We’re highly visible. It reassures
people that we’re around. It brings us into the campus community.”
Foley laughs at some initial perceptions regarding his
new unit. “A lot
of people come up and say, ‘these officers must be getting some sort of
punishment.’ But that’s not the case at all. I do a lot of biking
outside of the school and these hills make you better, build up your cardiovascular
system.”
So far, the bike patrol is a success among the students. “They seem to
accept the bikes well,” said Foley. “I think the students are energized
by them.”
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