Police Ox and Black Leather

Have you seen the Toyota Prius? Maybe you OWN one! A co-worker bought one and we trooped out of the office to admire it in the parking garage. She had to special order it as they’ve become very popular with gas prices going up again. She told them that she didn’t care about what color it was, but luckily it’s a deep dark red, such a gorgeous car! And such a space-age car, it looks like the car of the future! It has a bizarre way to start it, a screen showing the engine, and the coolest hologram-type thingy on the dashboard, and oh, that new car smell. It gets around 50 miles to the gallon. I want one of those! Well, at least the jeep headlights are working now.

So, what did I learn in session 5 of the Citizens’ Police Academy? That motorcycle cops in head to toe black leather are gorgeous, even more so than a nice new car! I didn’t realize that we even had any motorcycle cops over here in my new city, had never seen any until last night (now I’ll be looking). The presenter asked how many of us had seen motorcycle cops, and nobody raised their hand, so he laughed and said that unless you’ve been stopped by one, you probably haven’t seen them! They’re very stealthy, sit under trees and in alleyways to catch speeders. The bikes are huge Harley’s and they have that blinking light pole in the back, but still people don’t see them—until it’s too late. And the cops like it that way.

Before we went outside, they showed us a training video of some of the officers going through a riding school. It looked tough and we got to see them progress from dumping the bikes continually to making very tight corners and stopping quickly. Outside in the police parking lot with those orange cones set up they showed us some wonderful trick riding. We also learned how to pick up a dumped Harley (which weighs 800 pounds!) by sitting on the seat sideways and pushing it up with your legs. Even a small, slight woman could do it! In fact they told us that small women usually make the best riders because they can’t muscle a machine like that but have to finess it around tight corners. Our police department doesn’t have any women motorcycle cops, though.

We didn’t get to ride the bikes, of course, but it was pretty exciting to watch. They even attracted a neighborhood crowd. They lease the bikes at $1 each per year and some of my classmates were quite interested and asking questions about how to get a deal like that. But it’s through a special program for law enforcement from Harley-Davidson.

After that we saw a bicycle demonstration. It may sound pretty tame after seeing the motorcycles and all that black leather, but it was very cool. Most of us didn’t know that the department has bicycle cops either. They use them for the same reason as the motorcycles, stealth. And most of the bicycle cops ride at NIGHT, which surprised me and sounded pretty dangerous. But they can ride quietly into an alleyway or on a sidewalk and go right up to vandalizing kids, or a garage break in without the “perps” seeing or hearing them.

For the demonstration, the bike cop easily rode down another cop running and trying to evade him. They went through the grass, around cars, up and down stairs and the running cop (even though in good shape) started to get worn out long before the cyclist cop did, and got easily nabbed. Of course they can’t arrest or take away anybody on a bike, but need to call for a squad for that.

There were more interesting things at Session 5, but it ended with an interesting proposition, and perhaps one of the reasons that they hold the Citizens’ Police Academy yearly:
Two people in uniform came in, dressed in uniforms, they even had police jackets. They told us about the Police Auxiliary, a volunteer unit that help the police with community activities like races, fairs, parades, festivals, and other large public events. “Members of the Auxiliary Police also provide crime and accident scene security at large incidents. They also provide traffic control as backup to on-duty officers. Members of the Auxiliary Unit receive special training and are assigned the uniforms and special equipment necessary to help them in the performance of their jobs.”

They called it “Police Aux” which sounded like “Police Ox” to me--that seems rather unattractive--like large and slow and stupid. But if I became a Police Ox I could eat whatever I liked, right? Uniforms, driving a squad car, special equipment, guarding a crime scene and learning evasive driving tactics—where do I sign up!

Oh happy happy Friday to all!