ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – After an Uptown neighborhood pushed the Albuquerque Police Department to make a bike path safer, the department is now responding by adding another set of responsibilities onto police service aides saying they’ll soon be on bike patrols.
APD called it a new alternative on how to better watch bike paths and open space. “Just the high visibility presence, having that presence out there that plays a factor that will be a good deterrent,” said Southeast Area Commander Luke Languit.
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For decades, APD has only allowed sworn officers to be certified for bike patrols, which have covered places like the Paseo De Las Montanos path along the Embudo Arroyo but now they are bulking up the team. “Just recognizing as far as resources, if we can train up PSA’s, that was a good plan to have them be available to kinda observe and report,” said Languit.
Four PSA’s are now bike certified with hopefully more on the horizon. “Each bike class they do have a certain number of spots and again it has to be so many hours to certify them so as many classes as we have the capacity to do that we can fill with officers and/or PSA’s we want to do that,” said Languit.
So far, there’s no schedule on when PSA’s will patrol certain areas. “What trails have the most activity, most amount of people using them, I think this year we can definitely look at that and come up with a plan to deploy them now that they are certified,” said Languit.
APD said it’s harder to get officers on bike patrols these days, something neighbors around Jerry Cline Park find frustrating but the department says it’s aware of issues in the area. “We do have to answer emergency calls for service and 911 calls but when officers have the time just in the last two months, we’ve had 44 events where officers specifically logged out there and conducted those patrols,” said Languit.
They also claim they’ve continued to increase patrols near the park. “In December of last year, we were able to seize a large quantity of narcotics and we were able to make an arrest so we’re looking at when there is an issue what are the root causes and factors that we can address,” said Languit.
The department is also asking the community to call in suspicious activity when they see it so they can learn where and when bike patrols are needed.