On the Beat
ACT Bike Patrols - 23 February 2010
ACT Bike Patrols
ACT Policing regularly reviews its operations and activities to ensure that we are delivering effective policing strategies to the Canberra community.
As part of the Suburban Policing Strategy, ACT Policing continues to develop new ways of engaging the Canberra community through proactive and high visibility patrolling.
Bicycle patrols are a highly effective way of bridging the gap between vehicle and foot patrols. The use of bicycles allows ACT Police officers to access areas which have been identified as either inaccessible by vehicle or time consuming to cover on foot. As well as being environmentally friendly it also provides a highly visible police presence and enhances the community’s accessibility to our officers.
General duties members from South District patrols have recently joined their City Beats counterparts in becoming trained bicycle patrol officers and have commenced patrolling in the Woden and Tuggeranong zones.
Evidence from overseas and other Australian policing jurisdictions has shown that bicycle patrols are a very successful community engagement tool and ACT Policing is excited at the prospect of providing an additional service to the Canberra community.
ACT Policing encourages local businesses and members of the public to engage with our new bicycle patrol officers to discuss local community issues and to help identify potential issues before they become more serious problems.