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| The year was 1880. Automobiles had
not yet appeared on the scene. Another form of wheeled transportation, the
bicycle, was all the rage. Frustrated with dirt roads that often became
impassable after the lightest rain, early cyclists were among the first to
organize to improve and pave America's highways. This was the "genesis" of
the League of American
Bicyclists (L.A.B. or "The League"), today widely recognized as the
grandparent of all cycling organizations. One hundred years later, police departments were looking for a practical way to balance the personal touch of a walking beat officer with today's need for mobility. The demand for information on the use of bikes by law enforcement spurred L.A.B. to organize the first "Police on Bikes"® Conference. Held in Tucson, Arizona, in 1991, this first gathering produced the idea that police cyclists could benefit from an association that would facilitate the sharing of information and establish training and equipment standards. The following year, at L.A.B.'s 2nd Annual Police on Bikes® Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, the International Police Mountain Bike Association (IPMBA) was formed as a separate division of L.A.B. Founding members included officers from across the United States and Canada. One of the most well known programs offered by L.A.B. is their Effective Cycling® (E.C.) certification. Taught by certified instructors across the country, L.A.B. is able to educate cyclists how to safely, legally, and efficiently use bicycles as a means of transportation. In addition to the skills and knowledge imparted to E.C. students, the program has proven worthwhile for cyclists who found themselves in court after being injured in a vehicle accident. E.C. certification has been recognized as evidence of serious training in safe, legal riding techniques. Officer Allan Howard, of the Dayton, Ohio, Police Department, and Officer Kirby Beck, of the Coon Rapids, Minnesota, Police Department, are both E.C. Instructors and founding members of IPMBA. They realized that a similar program, tailored to the needs of police departments and incorporating police tactics, was one of the most important services IPMBA could offer its members. In April of 1993, after months of planning, ten instructors from across the U.S. gathered in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to present the first, four-day IPMBA Police Cyclist Course® (PC) to 90 officers from the U.S. and Canada. The curriculum included what any bike officer should know about safe riding, police tactics, maintenance, emergency skills and legal issues. The 3rd Annual Police on Bikes® Conference was held immediately after this first PC Course. More than 250 North American peace officers attended three days of workshops and exhibits. Citizen patrol groups, storefront operations, community policing, officer selection, bicycle maintenance and patrol tactics, were among the many topics discussed. The 4th Annual Police on Bikes® Conference was held in San Antonio, TX and was met with great success. In 1995, the 5th Annual Police on Bikes® Conference was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The new addition in 1995 was the Police Cyclist Instructor Development Course® held prior to the conference. With over 100 certified instructors, this course exposed certified PCIs to different methods of instruction and demonstrated how other instructors approach difficult teaching situations. The instructors also learned about Firearms instruction, an newest addition to the current Police Cyclist Course Curriculum. The 6th Annual Police on Bikes® Conference was held in Rochester, New York, May 5 - 11, 1996. In addition to the conference's core offerings, this year's conference saw the introduction of the IPMBA Maintenance Officer Certification Course®, which allows the students to learn everything possible about bike maintenance, and also allows them to work directly with manufacturers. The 7th Annual Police on Bikes Conference was held in Nashville, Tennessee, April 27 - May 3. Offered this year at the pre-conference training session April 27-30 was the IPMBA Police Cyclist Course; the IPMBA Maintenance Officer Certification Course; the IPMBA Police Cyclist Instructor Development Course (open to current PCIs only); and the newly offered IPMBA EMS Certification Course. All went very well -- with the new EMS Course drawing 12 attendees from seven states. Not bad for a first time class! All in all, there were over 117 participants of the pre-conference training courses and 21 instructors. The three-day conference that was held May 1-3 drew over 354 attendees from the United States, Canada, Panama and Australia, representing 134 agencies, 19 colleges or university campuses, 7 park and recreation departments, 3 military installations, 2 emergency medical departments, 1 border patrol and 1 representative from the Department of Defense! Thirty-three states were represented, with large contingencies coming from Florida, Texas, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania, with the largest contingency of course coming from the good old state of Tennessee! Officers from Alaska and Hawaii joined us, too. Courses were hands-on and classroom workshops that covered everything from administrative issues to patrol tactics -- thirty four workshops in all. The conference is topped off with an annual mountain bike competition, that was extremely successful. The Nashville P.D. proudly showed different units of their police department and kids showed up for the cop-kid ride-along and rodeo. A great day! In 1998, the Tacoma Police Department was the proud host of the conference. Introduced in '98 were numerous EMS-oriented courses, our Police Cyclist Advanced four-day, forty-hour pre-conference training course, and other important additions to our roster of educational offerings, including new administrator courses, and tactical courses. The '98 Bicycle Officers Competition was the best ever, with the addition of a sprint section and a hill climb to the traditional obstacle course. And the obstacle! In 1999, IPMBA's Police on Bikes Conference drew its largest attendance ever with over 400 total participants. The City of Chicago was a great host, and the conference was a success! The big news in 1999 was the split. In November of that year, IPMBA separated amicably from its parent organization, the League of American Bicyclists. Although IPMBA will always be a part of the larger cycling community, the continued growth of bike patrol meant that IPMBA needed to focus more of its energy on the development of training programs and resources for its members. The year 2000 brought the 10th Anniversary of IPMBA's Annual Police on Bikes Conference. It was a great time, both educationally and recreationally, in the City of Tucson, Arizona, which was the host of IPMBA's original conference way back in 1991. Memories of the Tucson conference always seem to include the hill climb up A Mountain, so steep that contestants struggled to keep their front wheels on the ground. One of the other momentous occasions of 2000 was the election of the first EMS professional to the board of directors - a sign of IPMBA's commitment to medics on bikes. Finally, the old practice teach method of becoming an IPMBA Instructor and the PCID were replaced with a standardized, 40-hour Instructor Course. In 2001, IPMBA members descended upon Cincinnati, Ohio, for the 11th Annual Conference. The Cincinnati Police Division did an outstanding job of hosting the conference and seeing to both the educational and social needs of attendees. The competition was held on the waterfront as part of the festivities surrounding the annual Flying Pigs marathon, and the hill climb contestants tackled imposing Mt. Adams, which rises 310 feet over just 6/10 of a mile. The conference moved out west for 2002, to Ogden, Utah, in the wake of the Olympic Games. Despite the long weeks of overtime associated with the Olympics, the Ogden Police Department bike unit was able to host an outstanding event. The conference activities took place against a backdrop of snow-capped peaks, and the trails tested the mettle of even the most accomplished riders. The competition course provided the usual challenges - and then some! The town won't quickly forget the sight of the newly-introduced Bicycle Rapid Response Team Training class riding through the streets decked out in gas masks, or the quick action of the Advanced Class members who chased down a would-be jewelry thief. 2003 saw the introduction of the Intermediate Police Cyclist Course - an intense course with a focus on bicycle operations and practical policing - at the annual IPMBA Conference in Charleston, West Virginia. This increased the number of pre-conference training courses to seven: Police Cyclist, EMS Cyclist, Intermediate Police Cyclist, Advanced Police Cyclist, Instructor, Maintenance, and Bicycle Rapid Response. The competition held on the grounds of the gold-domed State Capitol building, was short and tight. Of particular visual interest was the slalom through the kind of life-sized dummies more commonly found on firing ranges. Shortly after the conference, IPMBA participated in the first annual Emergency Services Cycling Seminar, hosted by the N. Yorkshire Police Department in York, England. Held in conjunction with the York Rally, Britain's largest single gathering of cyclists, it marked the beginning of what is hoped will become a UK branch of IPMBA. In 2004, IPMBA paid a visit to a town it had seen ten years earlier - San Antonio, Texas. With more pre-conference courses and conference workshops than ever before, it truly was a Texas-sized event. The newest addition to the menu of course offerings was the 24-hour Security Cyclist Course, designed to meet the particular needs of non-sworn patrol personnel. The Police Cyclist Advanced Course took on the identity of the Survival Tactics & Riding Skills Course, which communicates the purpose of the course much more clearly. Once again, IPMBA members got down to business, coming to the rescue of a seizure victim as well as busting some pot-smokers behind the Alamodome. For the first time in history, IPMBA did not hold an obstacle course competition - not by design, but because of the Texas-sized storms that blew through, forcing it to be cancelled. There was a lot of disappointment, but it was nothing that a good, old-fashioned Texas bar-b-que couldn't fix. IPMBA welcomed its largest non-USA contingent to the San Antonio conference. With representatives from Canada, Honduras, Mexico, Israel, Switzerland, and the UK, it was truly an international gathering. IPMBA once again participated in the York Rally and Emergency Services Cycling seminar in York, England, and took the next steps towards what has been informally dubbed "IPMBA UK." In 2005, Arizona was once again the location of the annual IPMBA conference-- IPMBA's third time in Arizona but first time in Scottsdale. The event was a tremendous success, attracting participants from 34 states and seven countries (not counting the US). The international contingent was comprised of officers and medics from Australia, Canada, England, Israel, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and even the island of Tobago! Attendees participated in six pre-conference training courses and an exciting series of conference workshops. In their spare time, many hit the trails for some extracurricular riding and finished off the day by visiting Scottsdale's lively downtown district. The annual parade and competition were once again part of the program, and a post-competition celebration rounded out the festivities. The third annual 999 Emergency Services Cycling seminar was held in York, England, and was preceded by the first IPMBA Instructor Course to be offered outside of the United States. Fifteen instructors were certified, including the first IPMBA Instructor in the Netherlands. Also in 2005, IPMBA signed a contract with Jones & Bartlett Publishers to publish the Complete Guide to Public Safety Cycling, an update of the Complete Guide to Police Cycling. A committee of authors was assembled to begin working on this momentous task. The first Complete Guide was published in 1996. In 2006, IPMBA went "home" to Dayton, Ohio for the 16th Annual Conference. Although IPMBA was not born there, Dayton is home to IPMBA's first chairperson and Police Cyclist Instructor #001, Allan Howard. The conference was hosted by the Dayton Police Department and a committee comprised of representatives from 14 neighboring agencies. Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom were well-represented, as were 34 states. The full slate of pre-conference courses were offered, and the conference featured an outstanding array of workshops as well as the annual competition. The annual 999 Emergency Services Seminar found a new home in 2006 - Southampton, England. Hosted by the Hampshire Police at the National Oceanography Centre, the event was a tremendous success. It was attended by public safety personnel from England, Scotland, and the Netherlands. Once again, an IPMBA Instructor Course was offered in conjunction with the seminar. In an Instructor Course offered in Tacoma, Wash., IPMBA certified the first-ever IPMBA Security Cyclist Instructor (SCI). The process of rewriting the Complete Guide was launched in earnest and the task of reviewing and updating existing material and compiling new material was begun. A team of authors from around the organization was tasked with ensuring that the new edition would contain the best, most current information for police, EMS, and security cyclists. In 2007, East Baton Rouge EMS became the first EMS agency to host the annual IPMBA Conference. Attendees from 34 states, England, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands gathered for the week-long training event. Eight pre-conference classes followed by the traditional two-and-a-half day conference, highlighted by the annual competitition. Held on the levee with the U.S.S. Kidd in the background, the competition provided entertainment for participants and spectators alike. Afterwards, IPMBA experienced another "first" - a celebratory crawfish boil, which was enjoyed by all. IPMBA is looking forward to the next few years and more fantastic training conferences. Stay tuned for more information about the: 18th Annual IPMBA Conference, April 24-26, 2008, in Indianapolis, Indiana. |
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