By Stefanie Scott
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
When the Wauwatosa Police Department bought two motorcycles a year ago, it was said that the officers using them could expect to double the number of citations they hand out while helping the department cut down on fuel costs.
That has happened, and then some. Productivity has quadrupled and officers have found the motorcycles helpful in traffic enforcement, accident investigation and special event patrols, Capt. Jeff Sutter said.
The bikes also get up to 32 miles per gallon, compared to a patrol car’s 8 to 10 mpg."They’ve far exceeded my expectations,” he said.
The department purchased the pair of Harley-Davidson Electroglide motorcycles through a combination of donations, grants and asset forfeiture funds last year. Since the officers spent the better part of September in training and put the bikes away in November, this year is the first the department is getting an entire season of use from them.
Fair weather patrols
Patrol Specialist Ryan Cepican, one of the five officers trained to ride the motorcycles, hopped on the bike April 1 and has been in the saddle every day since.
Department policy states at least one officer will be deployed on a motorcycle during first and second shifts whenever the temperature is between 45 and 90 degrees and it’s not raining.
But bad weather has not deterred Cepican. He recalls watching snowflakes as he returned from an April evening assignment.
“Once you get on, it’s hard to stop,” he said.
That feeling was surprising to the officer, who had never ridden a civilian motorcycle. But that was actually a selling point to instructors from the training program co-sponsored by the manufacturer and Northwestern University.
“They actually preferred I am not a rider because they don’t have to break any bad habits I might have had,” Cepican said.
Training is intense
During the two-week training, the officer’s strength, stamina and endurance was put to the test on the 1,000-pound motorcycle - bigger and sturdier than a sport motorcycle.
He and the other trainees spent eight to 10 hours per day riding, and Cepican estimates he fell or put the motorcycle on the ground - at slow speeds, so no injuries - at least 100 times.
“They were all beat up and hobbling,” Sutter said of his classmates. “Some of them said they didn’t think they were going to make it through.”
In fact, 30 percent of all officers enrolled in the class do not succeed. The final test requires students to pass about a dozen exercises. One of the more difficult tasks was mastering a “keyhole” maneuver, turning in a tight circle.
Other skills covered in the training include slow-speed maneuvering, high-speed control, fast breaking, curve negotiation, motorcycle maintenance and defensive driving. A sixth Wauwatosa officer is headed to training this week to learn the ropes.
Many benefits seen
The Wauwatosa Police Department is not alone in adding motorcycles to its patrol fleet, but the local department has put more miles on its bikes than its suburban counterparts, Sutter said. Wauwatosa officers have driven more than 10,000 this year between the two bikes.
Motorcycles provide easier access in tight quarters, giving officers an opportunity to drive in areas patrol cars cannot go, said Wendell Kendrick, Harley-Davidson police training lead.
The department’s motorcycles have been used to respond to incidents on bike trails and to navigate bumper-to-bumper traffic to get to accidents on Highway 45. They also were used to ride alongside groups in the Fourth of July parade.
“One of the unexpected perks is the public interest the motorcycles have sparked,” Cepican said. “Families come up and take their pictures with us when we’re running radar on the bike.”
Kendrick said he is not surprised, as he has often heard that motorcycles make officers less intimidating.
“The officer is not encased in glass and steel like with a patrol car,” he said.
Drawbacks recognized
But not everyone has responded positively to the motorcycle patrols. Some people have complained that the motorcycles are being used to trap speeders because they are not as visible as patrol cars.
“I sit in the same spots I sit in with the car,” Cepican said. "(The motorcycles) have reflective decals, and I’m in full uniform.”
The issue may be that people do not expect an officer to be riding a motorcycle or that drivers do not see the bikes as easily as a squad car, Sutter said.
For now, there are no plans to buy additional motorcycles, since their use is limited. They cannot haul all forms of policing equipment or transport people who have been arrested, for instance.
“I’d never say you’d want these as responding vehicles in all incidents,” Sutter said. “We do a lot more than traffic enforcement and accident investigating.”
Copyright 2009, Journal Sentinel Inc.