by frog
Nelson’s police force has taken up bicycling. Good on them, especially for this bit of ‘kiwi ingenuity’:
The special lights and sirens can be ordered from the United States for about $US300 ($NZ520), but police had rigged their own up for about a 20th of the cost.
The siren was more like an air horn than those found in police cars, and would definitely grab people’s attention, Mr Bernards said.
Seven officers have been through the required training and two are expected to be out on their bikes in the Nelson area at any given time.
Mr Bernards said police involved with school groups on bicycles had already nabbed two offenders – in one case a policeman had been able to come up on a drug dealer without him hearing, and a shoplifter had been chased.
He hoped the idea would eventually spread around the country.
Me too. And the article also answers the first question to my mind. Will they go for American-style shorts or British-style long trousers?
The riders will have special uniforms, the shorts arrived yesterday, and helmets are also decked out in police livery.
So the answer is CHiPs. Good ol’ sunny Nelson, eh?
Photo credit: bcbeatty and mondogogo
Published in Environment & Resource Management | Justice & Democracy | Society & Culture by frog on Wed, November 12th, 2008
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
This does kind of turn the standard criticism of the Green’s into a complement. The original rationale for plods and bobby’s on bicycles was to provide a visible deterent to opportunistic crims and increasing the perceived risk of actually getting caught in the act. It’s a great shame the later bright sparks decided to put cops in cars to provide rapid response. That was the beginning of the shift from crime prevention to crime prosecution.
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Is that frogs legs?
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Pigs legs?
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>This does kind of turn the standard criticism of the Green’s into a complement.
Erm?
Ows that??
Those of us advocating more active crime and punishment have asked for this reversion to community beat policing for years. I don’t see it as a green thing at all.
Unless you’re harping on about using bikes to avoid carbon dioxide pollution, in which case this has nothing to do with it.
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LOL they could switch to become the speedo cops LOL
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Strings. Do you know what “harping” means? Or is just the persistent rain getting you down?
Do you really think this is a response to request for a return to beat policing to combat crime rather than a response to fuel costs doubling in the last nine years and Vote Police barely keeping up with inflation?
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