Stealth Deputies : Bikes Let Teams Get Closer to the Public

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Wearing shorts, helmets, gun belts and white shirts emblazoned with the word Sheriff on the back, two deputies saddled up on their new 24-speed bicycles this week and pedaled away to patrol their beats.

Biking through downtown and the Capistrano Villas and Casa de Capistrano condominium complexes, the two-man team caught more than a few double-takes as they rode on the sidewalk, in alleys and over grassy areas between housing units, greeting residents and keeping a watchful eye over the community.

“It went very well,” Lt. Paul Sullivan, chief of police services for San Juan Capistrano, said of the first week on wheels. The first day netted five arrests. “We’re excited about it.”

The arrests involved drinking violations, officers said. While officials said they expected to make most of their arrests on minor violations, they can also handle major crimes.

Law enforcement officers in San Juan Capistrano, like a growing number of cities in Orange County, are trading in their patrol cars for two wheelers in an effort to enhance their community-based policing programs and encourage greater interaction with residents.

Complete with lights, special front shock absorbers and some sirens, the all-terrain bicycles are being used by officers across the county from Santa Ana and Cypress to Huntington Beach and Orange with success and significant community support.

Although generally used as a tool to enhance community relations and handle nuisance complaints, the bike patrols also make felony arrests, issue tickets and even pull over vehicles.

“They’re called stealth deputies,” Lt. Paul Ratchford, Dana Point’s chief of police services, said of the cycle cops that have operated in the city since the early 1990s. “They’re great and the public loves them.”

In most cities, bike officers patrol the streets several times a week, covering targeted community policing beats or highly populated and downtown areas.

With summer approaching, in beach cities like Huntington Beach, the bike cops also patrol on the sand and often replace foot patrols in areas crowded with people or congested with traffic.

“There’s a large advantage,” said Lt. Luis Ochoa, north area commander for the Huntington Beach Police Department. “You’re able to move about without a lot of people seeing you. . . . You’re able to see things you can’t in a car.”

In San Juan Capistrano, bike cops are not a new concept. The city originally unveiled bike patrols in 1995, only to disband them because the equipment was inadequate for law-enforcement officers.

The fully outfitted 24-speed bikes and equipment now used by deputies like Paul Meginnis and John Gentile cost about $2,600 and were paid for by a state grant. Other cities have budgeted for bike patrols or relied on community donations to maintain the bike cops.

For residents like Andres Morales of San Juan Capistrano, any police officer, whether on two wheels or four, is a welcome site in his community, where people often loiter, drink in public and cause nuisance problems.

“It’s good,” Morales said about the officers’ first day on bikes. “Now that they’re here, people don’t do anything.”

While residents like the idea of officers on bicycles, officers really like to ride the bikes.

“The officers love it,” Costa Mesa Police Chief Dave Snowden said. “I would encourage any city that doesn’t have it to try. . . . It’s been very well-received.”