The University Police Department now has a bike team patrolling Long Beach State. The bike team’s goal is to communicate with the CSULB community and to educate students and faculty on the laws and regulations of the campus.
Skateboarders and scooter riders who zoom through campus halls played a big role in the formation of the bike team, according to UPD Capt. Richard Goodwin. There are signs up to let students know when they are entering an area where skateboarding and scooter riding is restricted. Not many students pay attention to those signs, though.
Rather than catch the riders and punish them, the UPD wants to get their attention and inform them of routes they can take around campus without interfering with those who walk.
“I don’t mind people using their skateboards and scooters to get around, but I’m almost hit daily by someone riding them,” said Johan Alfaro, a third-year public relations major. “I think it’s just too busy on upper campus to be using them.”
The bike team is also responsible for patrolling the streets north of Atherton Street, where many students park due to the traffic on campus. Goodwin said the bike officers’ main duties are not to dish out punishments, but to inform.
Goodwin said that students who park in the residential areas around campus sometimes litter and the UPD will receive complaints from residents.
“Communication is a big piece in all this,” Goodwin said. “To educate, you have to have communication. It’s not necessarily that [the bike team] is enforcing something, but they’re talking to people, they’re being present. A big part of community-based policing is that personal contact.”
While the bike team can be looked at as publicists for the UPD, the members are still police officers and they do respond to all types of calls. The accessibility of the electric bikes can allow the officers to reach destinations quicker than patrol cars, as there is traffic on campus streets often.
The UPD used to have officers riding T3 Motion Segways to patrol the campus. After the release of “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” the officers were looked upon in a comical way and they weren’t thrilled to serve their Segway duties.
“It’s about image when you’re doing something with the public,” Goodwin said. “It’s not only the way you present yourself as a professional, the equipment you have also plays a role. The bikes look professional, the [officers] are dressed professionally. It’s a whole different image than the image presented with the segways.”
Goodwin said the new UPD all-black, stealth looking bikes are a big step up from the Segways of the past. There are only two UPD bike team members now, but Goodwin would like to see more officers get involved with the program over time.
This article previously misspelled student Johan Alfaro’s name, the correction was made Oct. 3 at 5:30 p.m.