It’s great that West Shore RCMP are copying other forces in using bicycle and foot patrols, but without more funding that will take away from speed of response to problems elsewhere.
A police motorcycle can travel trails, and is less visible sitting near a major intersection where police vehicles should be stationed to observe drivers and get to the site of an emergency sooner. The officer on a motorcycle is more approachable than in a car, but the car does have a door which an officer can open to stand beside it.
I say ‘copying’ because Seattle started bicycle patrols of alleys in the downtown area decades ago and Saanich has had bicycle patrols of wooded parks and some trails for years. Years ago Vancouver started foot patrols of a street section with many businesses. And many police departments have motorcycles, which can go down trails
Bicycle and foot patrols certainly encourage tips as they can be started informally, without the bureaucracy of the troubled emergency dispatch operation and the jerk Watch Commander who claimed the police don’t read newspapers when he was told of allegations of a particular behaviour of drivers on one street.
Hopefully RCMP bicycle and foot patrols will be on the trails and streets at time of greatest risk – in darkness.
As for the term ‘community policing’ I sneer at the buzzword that can have various definitions – what thinking people want is police quickly helping, and otherwise patrolling and investigating to catch more troubled individuals earlier.
Policing is moral because initiation of force stops what we require to live – actions that our mind has decided are appropriate for our life. Protection is the duty of municipal governments yet they consciously shirk it while spending on glitz and pet do-gooder projects.
Keith Sketchley
Saanich