Ra'anana Bicycle Police Secure Israel's
Top VIPs on July 4
by Samuel Schwartz
Head of the Ra'anana Civil Guard (Auxiliary Police) Bicycle Police Unit
Ra'anana, Israel
"A commercial vehicle has just sped
through our roadblock. As it passed, two suspects jumped out of the vehicle,
hit the ground running and disappeared into the surrounding neighborhood."
We heard this report on our radios and our hearts started pounding faster.
Our unit was among those encharged with protecting the country's top leadership
and foreign dignitaries on this day, and two suspicious men were running
right for us.
It was July 3rd, 2003, the eve of the United States' Independence Day. For
the first time in Israel's history, the American ambassador decided to hold
the festivities at Park Ra'anana, our city's beautiful and expansive park
complex. Ra'anana, a city of about 70,000 residents, is located some 20
kilometers northeast of Tel Aviv. In previous years, the United States'
ambassador had hosted the July 4th celebrations at his official residence.
Rumor had it that the ambassador was smitten with beauty Ra'anana's spacious
grounds and this year decided to celebrate here.
To us, the members of Ra'anana's Civil Guard (Auxiliary Police) Bicycle Police
Unit, Park Ra'anana is our home turf. As part of our regular shifts, we have
patrolled every inch of the park and the streets surrounding it. Since it
began functioning in January 2003, the Bicycle Police Unit has made its presence
known on the streets of Ra'anana. Bicycle policing is still something of
a novelty in Israel and even after being active for seven months, we are
still sure to get curious smiles, stares and abundant comments of, "Hey,
it's 'Pacific Blue'" every time we go out on patrol.
In addition to the regular patrols of the city's main streets, industrial
areas, shopping centers and agricultural fields, the unit provides security
at special events like this one. In the past, the unit has been integrated
in missions like guarding polling booths during the January Prime Ministerial
and Knesset elections, riding alongside the runners and protecting the route
at Ra'anana's March 2003 Road Race, and insuring that the massive events
marking Holocaust Memorial Day, Israel's Soldier's Memorial Day and Israel's
Independence Day in May could proceed without incident.
In recent weeks, the unit has also been integrated into the police's defense
lattice protecting the city from terrorist infiltration. When the police
receive an intelligence report that a terrorist cell is attempting to cross
into the borders of Israel or is already in the region, the police bicycle
unit has been added to the roster of forces that are scrambled in order to
provide an added layer of security.
On this U.S. Independence Day eve, despite the recently declared cease fire
on the part of Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad,
there were still plenty of fresh intelligence reports about terrorists who
would be trying to infiltrate the country. With a guest list including Israel's
Prime Minister and President, Cabinet Ministers, Members of Knesset, Supreme
Court Justices, military top brass and luminaries from the worlds of culture
and business, not to mention all the U.S. Embassy staff and the entire diplomatic
community residing in Israel, this event was what might be described as a
very attractive terrorist target. Every unit involved in securing the event
had to be at maximum alert for the duration. The up-side of the extensive
guest list was that in providing an extremely visible presence, the bicycle
unit would not just help deter potential terrorists, but would also attract
the notice of the multitude of VIP's in attendance and boost its reputation
as an important component in the security mosaic protecting the city.
Most of the patrol was fairly quiet and we went about our work, utilizing
the inherent advantages of a mobile bicycle unit. We made our rounds, securing
the outer perimeter of the event, which included a grassy park area crowded
with people, a man-made lake spanned by narrow bridges, tight alleyways,
dirt paths and crop fields. The day was unseasonably hot and humid, even
for the exceptionally hot and humid area of Israel's Sharon region where
Ra'anana is located. However, with plenty of refills to our water bottles
and the motivation to make sure that the event went exactly as planned, the
shift went by quickly. We investigated a number of suspicious cars, objects
and visitors, but thankfully, all of them turned out to be harmless.
Then all of the sudden, shortly after I commented to one of my partners in
our three-person patrol about the tranquility of the shift, the radio started
crackling. Little bits of information came in from numerous sources. We put
together the picture of the transport vehicle that began rushing headlong
toward the park. Two of its occupants panicked when they saw the officers
on duty and jumped out of the moving vehicle, heading in our direction. A
few seconds after the initial reports came in, I heard my unit's call sign
spoken into the radio. I confirmed my position and then we received orders
to close in on the location of the incident and make contact with the suspects,
who escaped on foot before they could make it to the dignitaries.
With our hearts and our quads pumping, we scoured the residential streets,
combed the narrow alleyways, and made tracks through the straw-filled dirt
paths as we looked for the suspects. Mid-way through our chase, the radio
interrupted our search with reports that the driver of the vehicle had been
caught. We continued looking for the suspects and hoped that a preliminary
interview of the driver might shed some light on the men we were looking
for and about whom we had almost no description. Several minutes later another
call came out over the radio informing us that after the initial questioning
of the driver, the incident could now be reclassified as not a potential
terrorist attack on the nation's VIP's, but instead a case of illegal foreign
workers fleeing the sight of police whom they feared would deport them. We
breathed a sigh of relief and received orders to return to our circuit protecting
the park's perimeter. The decision to reclassify the event was soon proven
to be correct as a patrol car spotted the two men, who turned out to be laborers
from Thailand whose work visas had expired.
Frankly, none of us were disappointed that the incident turned out not to
be terrorist in nature. We were happy to get back to the routine of our patrol
and were grateful that in retrospect, the most explosive part of our shift
was the impressive fireworks display that the U.S. Embassy arranged to cap
off the festivities.
Sami Schwartz can be reached at
dianasam@aquanet.co.il.
© 2003 IPMBA. This article first appeared in the Fall 2003 issue
of IPMBA News. |
