A brief history of a small bike unit
in Hackney Borough
by Matt Devereau PS43GD
South Cycle Squad
Shoreditch Police Station
Hackney Borough, London, England
In 2002, I took charge of the Dalston
Town Centre Team on Hackney Borough. This small team polices Kingsland Shopping
Centre and Ridley Road Market. This area contains one of the most persistent
street crime hotspots in the MPS. It became apparent that a significant
contributor to this problem was caused by youths riding on mountain bikes.
These proved very difficult to stop due to their speed and the heavy traffic
- both pedestrian and vehicular - in the area. As a keen cyclist, I felt
that a tactic that should be considered was the police use of mountain bikes.
Whilst I had used bicycles in uniform in the past, I was aware that Health
& Safety legislation had significantly affected this type of patrol.
I researched the current MPS position on the subject of the police use of
mountain bikes and quickly identified Inspector Anthony Moore as a key contact.
I made slow but steady progress in preparation for setting up a cycling unit.
This involved identifying equipment, clothing, officers, and - most importantly
- funding for the project. During 2003, I moved role to the Neighbourhood
Task Force at Hackney Police Station, where I managed to organise a team
of officers who were keen to become police cyclists. In September 2003, we
received delivery of our bikes - 10 Smith & Wesson Tactical marked police
mountain bikes - and clothing. I then arranged for the first six officers
to receive the inaugural MPS Mountain Bike Course. This was run to a high
standard by IPMBA Instructor PC Jon Walters. During the course, we also managed
to incorporate a visit from the Hackney Gazette who photographed our unit
and published a full-page article about our work.
When I had originally mooted the concept of having a Police Mountain Bike
Team, it would be fair to say that opinion amongst officers on the Borough
was mixed as to its potential. Within a few weeks of working, the tide turned
strongly in our favour. Officers who initially had reservations about the
unit were now volunteering to be trained. This came about through the nature
of policing on bikes which I will describe below in more detail.
As we ventured out with some trepidation on our shiny new bikes, we were
all surprised at the levels of public support we received. This came from
a very wide spectrum within the community of Hackney and was so frequent
that it actually slowed down our patrols. The newspaper article mentioned
earlier appeared to have been read by nearly everyone - even our street
criminals. This support was invaluable in building our confidence and morale.
Our primary tasking at this time, and since, was street crime. During our
early stops, most of the conversation revolved around our bikes that were
reckoned to have a high level of 'street cred,' probably because they were
made by Smith & Wesson. A fair number of persons, both on foot and on
bikes, elected to try to run away from us at this time. We found that we
caught them in these circumstances on over 90% of occasions as a result of
the speed of our bikes, our ability to follow suspects through estates and
our developing tactics - when a chase started my cyclists would 'starburst'
and cover every escape route the suspect might take. Having been in operation
for four months, we now find that suspects running away from us are a rarity
- it's clear that our ability to catch people has been communicated throughout
Hackney.
In January 2004, Hackney Borough was split, and following lengthy negotiations
with members of Hackney Borough Senior Management Team, I managed to set
up what is now called the South Cycle Squad based at Shoreditch Police Station.
This consists of myself as supervisor and eight constables. Our remit remains
street crime, but police cyclists are such a potent weapon for dealing with
anti-social behaviour on estates that we have spent a good deal of time dealing
with this as well. This has been easy to justify as the groups of troublesome
youths who congregate on the estates invariably contain our street crime
nominals in their midst. Our work in this area has been so successful that
on a recent occasion where we robustly and physically dispersed a group on
an estate, residents came out of their flats and insisted on shaking our
hands. They made comments such as 'That's the best policing I have seen in
years' and 'You've made such a difference, you not going to be here today
and gone tomorrow, are you?'
A recent tactic that we have started to employ with considerable success
is overt photography of persons believed to be involved in street crime.
This has enabled us to record details of clothing and bikes of persons stopped.
This has the twin benefits of assisting in the investigation of robberies
where the description of the suspect can be matched to a photograph, and
to deterring potential offenders who know that their image has been recorded
and may be used as an investigation tool. It has one additional benefit that
has been invaluable in looking after officer safety - when a group of suspects
tries to interfere in our conduct of a stop, the overt use of the camera
causes them to scatter at speed.
As the South Cycle Team have worked together there has been a steady increase
in the officers' confidence, tactics and enthusiasm. For example, in one
two week period, we completed 117 Stop & Search procedures, 22 Stop &
Speak and made 16 arrests. We have also submitted 119 intelligence reports
and taken in excess of 300 digital photographs. Overall, I don't think that
I can remember ever working on a team where morale has been so high - and
that is in spite of working almost permanent late turns!
© 2004 IPMBA. This article first appeared in the Spring 2004
issue of IPMBA News. |
