Editor Note: Eileen Schaubert, Mellow Johnny’s Community Outreach person, took the Austin Police Department’s bicycle training in July and is doing a series of articles for A2W about her experience.

“Yes, officer, I know I am riding slower than traffic but it is legal for me to ride here.” Sound familiar? Long a complaint among the cycling community, APD officers aren’t always knowledgeable on bike specific laws. Chief Art Acevedo acknowledged not only his staff’s shortcomings but his own as well back in January at the cycling forum. In my last post I outlined some of the cycling education efforts already underway in Austin. This time I’d like to address what APD is teaching its mountain bike patrol officers and compare that to what the local League Cycling Instructors are teaching.

Nadia Berrera and I had co-taught the Traffic Skills 101 class to Chief Art Acevedo and members of his staff during Bike Month. Now I was asked to be the first civilian to take the mountain bike patrol class offered at the APD training academy. I was really looking forward to seeing firsthand what was being taught – these cops should be our best allies, right? They are out in traffic all shift long. They know what we come up against with hostile drivers, lights that don’t change, and poor road conditions. Do they have any great drills I can take back to my classes? How do they explain the arcane technicalities of the law? Will I get to drop stairs and shoot guns?

TS101 at 9 hours seems short compared to three 10 hour days (especially since they start at 7am.) The first morning was similar to what we teach civilian riders covering basics such as shifting, bike maintenance, and emergency stops. But that’s where the classroom similarities ended. The assumption is that the officers are fully versed in bike laws before they come to class. That means there is a lot of time left to spend on the bike working through drills, tactical simulations and just plain riding. Each day we rode both on and off-road getting lots of miles in our legs.

Bike Handling is critical for patrol officers so we ran through start/stops, shifting plus emergency stops which is pretty much the same as TS101. But then we moved into the more complicated drills starting with a 12 foot square box where the rider must navigate around the inner edge of the box without stepping down. Next the box gets smaller then they introduce a second rider into the box. We finish with a chase drill to catch a second rider. I just end up making myself dizzy riding circles around the guy without closing it down. (I’d be a miserable bike polo player.)

The Chase during the second afternoon has the class breaking into 2 man patrols that each go through a simulation involving an encounter that ends in a chase. They have to fight the urge to chase on foot, getting back on their bike to follow the suspect so the final result is more likely to be a tired, winded person getting handcuffed instead of an immediate scuffle. Only one officer had his bike actually grabbed by the runner during the chase.

Guns and Gears on Day 3 literally brings out the guns! Dang – I can only observe on this shooting drill. I’m told “No” on the Tasers as well. The officers are getting a bit weary from the long rides so this will be interesting when they put back on their bullet-proof vests and full belts. The drill is a race that starts with a ride on the track and a run down to the firing range before walking up to shoot 8 rounds at the target. Back on the bike to repeat all this two more times. Each officer is timed but receives a 1 minute bonus for hits within a small box on the target’s chest, shots staying within the body outline are neutral while shots outside the body receive a 1 minute penalty. An important lesson – aim is greatly affected by cycling gloves.

Stair Drops and Climbs finishes out the last morning with some stair drops at Auditorium Shores and a climb up Stratford Drive. The group has improved their shifting and pedaling efficiency greatly now that their legs are really tired and burning on even the slightest of inclines.  The lead instructor Manuel Martinez had warned me that he doesn’t really start teaching until the third day. I found that to be true since it’s when you are tired that your preparation and training kick in. The officers need to ride as efficiently as possible plus remember the tactical training and the equipment changes that will affect their ability to perform in critical situations.  Similar to racing, it doesn’t matter that you were the strongest one pulling at the front all day – you have to make the sprint to win. It’s all about conserving energy and responding when the move comes.

A couple of personal thoughts: Somebody should start a Blue Bike Project – the city’s equipment is in really bad shape with their limited budget. Many officers end up riding and maintaining their own equipment. We rode at McKinney after a rain so the bikes got totally jammed up with mud and gravel. One officer riding is own bike trashed his rear derailleur so he was out $200. Budget cutbacks at the City mean APD officers are provided less ammunition at the range in addition to shortened training programs. This course use to be taught over 4 days allowing for more tactical drills and more firing range time. The officers were treated to a mild lecture encouraging them to spend personal time and ammunition at the range. The point being that their life or the public’s could depend on their aim at some point. The officer who won the firing range competition invests a lot of personal time and money keeping his shooting skills sharp and it showed.

Overall I’d have to say that the course was very different from what I expected. My assumption was that they would be learning traffic laws and how to ride safely in traffic, the topics I think are important for my students and what I personally want all officers to know.  Once in the class I realized that their time is better spent working on tactical drills. Our next step is to have officers from the training academy take part in Traffic Skills 101. The local TS101 instructors want to make sure our instruction is consistent with APD enforcement. If the cycling community and the police have common expectations for all road users then we will make great strides for improving safety for everyone.

Coming soon – a look at the APD online training module.

Related posts:

1. Cycling Community Wants More Bike Education – Where is it? ...
2. APD Chief Acevedo returns for second forum with the cycling community ...
3. APD continues the “There is no crackdown” crackdown on cyclists ...
4. Millville, NJ cyclist beaten by police after riding on the sidewalk ...
5. Careful when you glide through that stop sign, it may cost you over $150 ...