SPOKANE, Wash. — About 30 Spokane police officers completed a three-day bike patrol training Wednesday.
Bike officers aren't new to Spokane. They were most recently at protests downtown in May and June.
But now there are more of them, and they have higher levels of training they will take to Spokane streets.
Officers learned skills kills like safely stopping at a moment's notice for a child or traffic, maintaining balance and control in a crowd, and maneuvering through tight spaces.
Training coordinator Mark Brownell said the unit was formed out of need in Spokane.
"You'd think the fastest way to get around downtown is a car," Brownell said. "But the truth is, if you even have someone with even basic bike skills--they can actually move faster in a six block area than you typically can in a car."
Officer Brownell said the bikes can be deployed just about anywhere. For example, at a protest, the bikes can form a fence line.
"That fence line is designed to keep us on one side and keep protestors who may want to hurt us or somebody else or anything we're protecting on the other side," Brownell said.
Not only is it a tool for protection, but Brownell said the bikes can also build relationships with the community.
"A bicycle is a great icebreaker for people to come up to us," Brownell said. "I think that one of the big things we've seen throughout the protests is this divide between the public and police. But what people forget is we are the public as well. So people can come up and have normal human interactions with us."
SPD Communications Director Julie Humphreys said the department has long been waiting for a formal bike unit. It already had funding for equipment and training budgeted in March 2019, she said, and about $38,000 was spent on 16 new bikes and unit uniforms.
She said SPD will become the regional bike unit trainer for other law enforcement agencies in Eastern Washington starting next spring.
In Spokane, Brownell said this training does not mean people will see more officers on bike patrol, they'll just be even more prepared to protect and serve.