Wauwatosa police will be hitting the streets – and trails – with electrically assisted bicycles this summer.
The department purchased four Specialized Levo Mountain Bikes last summer. They retail for around $4,000 each, although Wauwatosa police received a slight discount.
The bikes are battery powered. After several hours of charging, they can assist officers as they pedal uphill or through tough terrain.
“These enhance the power you put into the bike,” said Sgt. Bradley Beckman. “If you generate 100 watts of power pedaling, it can match that 100 percent.”
Beckman added the bikes also have lower settings -- like 20 or 50 percent of a rider’s output. They top out at just over 20 miles per hour.
Wauwatosa police already owns six standard bicycles. Beckman said the battery-assisted bikes will help officers cover more ground and more-quickly respond to calls.
They should also ensure officers are fresher when using bicycles to respond to a call.
“By the time we get to the call, sometimes, our guys can be winded and maybe they can't exert as much energy as they have to at that call,” said Beckman. “So it takes some of the pressure off.”
Tosa Police hope to have all four of the electrically assisted bikes deployed on patrol this summer.
Initially, they’ll be used by resource officers who are typically assigned to local schools.
“They're freed up during the summer so they can ride the bikes everyday,” Beckman said.
He hopes the bikes allow children to feel more comfortable interacting with police outside of school.
“The kids can approach the officers, and they have that relationship built up already,” Beckman said of the resource officers. “So we can now continue that bond and kind of strengthen it as the summer goes on.”
The electrical bikes, much like their manual counterparts, can be a way to build police-community relations.
"The squad car can definitely be a barrier. People roll around with their windows up, maybe the radio is on in the squad car," Beckman said. "You just don't have that point to point contact. You can't have that conversation with somebody, maybe at a stop sign, like you can on the bicycle."
Beckman said not many other departments have the battery-assisted technology.
“As far as we know, we're the first department in the Midwest to have an electric assist bike patrol unit,” Beckman said.
Officers who use the bikes will have to undergo specialized training first.
