Romeoville Launches Bike Patrol

From neighborhoods to bike paths to outdoor events, the new Romeoville Police Department bicycle patrol will be there to work with residents one on one, according to village officials.

Mayor John Noak and Village Administrator Steve Gulden were part of an official kickoff for the patrol Thursday afternoon.

Although the patrol has been operating in a limited capacity for about a month, according to Assistant Chief Steven Lucchesi, its first official duty was to patrol Thursday night’s concert at the Deer Crossing Park amphitheater. 

Gulden said the initiative has been in the works for several years as part of the village’s efforts to boost the Community Oriented Policing (COP) program.

“It enhances our community policing efforts,” Lucchesi said. “The officers are very accessible to the public, very approachable. It allows for a lot more face-to-face contact with residents.”

Bikes also allow officers to be stealthy when they need to be, Lucchesi added.

“They’re going where squad cars just can’t access,” he said.

Officer Tom Dorsey, one of four patrol officers with the unit, said he applied to be part of the bicycle patrol because he wanted more contact with residents.

“I like talking to people, being out in the neighborhoods,” he said. Already, Dorsey said, residents are responding to the bike patrol and seem more comfortable approaching officers.

“They’ll tell us stuff we don’t necessarily get in a police car,” Dorsey said. “Maybe it’s a psychological thing,” he added, noting residents may think officers riding around town in squad cars look too busy to be approached.

Yet, already, residents have been asking the bike patrol for help, Officer Mark Przybylski said, adding they’ve fielded everything from a report of a possum stuck in a drain to neighbors asking police to keep an eye on suspicious activity.

Village board members . According to Noak, the timing was right to bring the initiative to Romeoville, particularly since the village has enhanced local parks and trails and is hosting more outdoor community events, thanks to the new and .

“The bike patrol seemed to be a natural progression of that,” Noak said.

Romeoville bike patrol officers spent four days training with bicycle divisions from the Joliet and Naperville police departments. The eight-hour training sessions helped officers learn techniques to help them patrol effectively, and, equally important, keep them from toppling over during.

One of the most important things the officers learned was how to stay upright on their bikes while riding extremely slowly, Dorsey said.

“That comes in handy in crowd-control situations,” he said.

After the training, “You could see how much better of a bike rider you are after just four days,” Dorsey added. “It’s not that you couldn’t do it before, it’s just that you didn’t know how.”

Officers also learned flashier tricks, like how to ride down stairs in case a suspect ever tries to elude them during a pursuit, Przybylski said.

The officers are planning to put their skills to good use by offering bike safety lessons for kids and teaching some of the techniques they’ve learned during a “bicycle rodeo” event.

“Maybe we can stop some kids from getting hurt,” Dorsey said, adding that the event is tentatively being planned for next spring.

Cmdr. Glenn Littrell said plans are also in the works for possible bike outings for kids.

“[Officers] could take the kids out on the bike trails,” he said. “A lot of this is in the planning stages. It’s just a great opportunity … to engage with kids.”

The official kickoff for the patrol took place Thursday, as the area coped with its fifth day in a row of extreme heat and humidity. But the heat doesn’t mean shorter shifts, or stop bike patrol officers from carrying out their duties, according to Przybylski.

So how do the officers deal with the extreme temperatures?

Przybylski smiled and said, "Bring lots of water."