by
Luke X. Martin,
Jan 20, 2010
The Chicago Police
Department is teaming up with Lincoln
Park business owners and residents to give new mobility
to local police efforts.
The Lincoln Park
Chamber of Commerce, along with the Clark Street Special Service Area, donated
18 mountain bikes to Chicago police this week. Police said the bikes
will help them stay more visible.
Sgt. Mike
Neckermann of Chicago police’s Central Command Group said the
bikes should hit the streets in a couple of weeks. He said the bicycles
will go to officers in the 18th, 19th and 23rd districts, which stretch
from the Chicago River to Lawrence
Avenue . The districts are bound by the North
Branch Chicago River to the west and the lakefront to the
east.
“It’s more of what
we like to call a curb-to-curb approach,” Neckermann said. “In a car,
you’re somewhat limited as to your areas of patrol. Sometimes you’re boxed in in
a car. You miss out on things you can see, smell,
whatever.”
Neckermann, who
estimated the department already uses about 500 bikes, said the new
bicycles will provide a welcome upgrade to officers already patrolling on
two wheels.
Clark Street SSA
Director Bruce Longanecker Sr. said many business owners were looking for ways
to improve safety along the Lincoln
Park ’s Clark
Street corridor. The commission came up
with the idea of donating the bikes about six months ago. “Talking to the police officers we found
that the bikes that they have were cannibalized,” or put together from parts of
other bicycles, he said.
Longanecker said
he hopes the new bikes help police protect Lincoln Park homes and businesses. “It’s
to make the street more inviting for the businesses and for the residents,” he
said. Cmdr. Ken Angarone said
bicycles also make police more mobile. “A bike can move in and out of
traffic,” Angarone said. “If they have to, they can use the
sidewalk.”
Angarone, who
heads the police department’s 18th District, said the bicycles also help break
down physical barriers between police and those they protect.
”Members of the
community have no problem speaking to an officer riding by on a bike,” Angarone
said. “Sometimes they’ll get information on a crime trend or something
that’s going on that they weren’t aware of.”
The
extra bikes also help police cover more ground. Angarone mentioned Oz
Park, at the corner of Lincoln and Webster avenues, as one place police can
better patrol on a bike.
A press release
from the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce said the donation was valued at
$25,000. The money came from Lincoln Park SSA’s 2010 budget, which is
drawn from the area’s property taxes.
“The commission
that oversees Clark Street SSA wanted to do something to improve security,” said
Loren Dinneen, director of special projects for the Lincoln Park Chamber of
Commerce. “(The police) have had a tremendous need for additional bikes,
so we were happy to donate them.”
https://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=154087oldId.20100122113200409