The City of Beaverton Police Department is proud of their bike patrol unit and they’re not afraid to show it off. The BPD announced last week that the van and trailer that houses their Bicycle Patrol Unit won second place in the 2012 Law and Order Magazine Police Vehicle Design Contest.
The Ford panel van and accompanying trailer (which carries 18-20 bikes) features a custom paint job with the words “Beaverton Police Mountain Bike Team” and a large silhouette of a rider on the side.
“The judges commented that the vehicle shows a strong community support with area businesses, vendors and sponsors. They especially liked the bike graphics on the side of the van,” reads a BPD press release.
Here are a few more photos…
Go Beaverton PD! That thing looks awesome!
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This is a level 30 bummer. It’s like Tapout making police uniforms.
Now they just have to come out & race some short track!
That thing is HOTT
The department is sending a message: B-Po is DTH.
I’m going to show my ignorance, but what are the van and trailer for?
Is this perhaps how they have fun on the weekend?
The link explains the bike patrol unit, but I thought the point of the unit was *not to be in a car/van* but to be patrolling the streets by bike.
the unit works a lot of events… And the trailer/van carries the bikes/officers to those events.
Indeed – keeping with the beaverton tradition of using your car to cart your bike somewhere to ride for a 1/2-mile and then claiming you ride you “rode your bike”. Don’t forget to right hook someone who actually rides their bike for a purpose on the way.
Apologies for non-constructive comment.
that trailer is awesome!
also, it should be noted that they took 2nd place in the “BEST SUPPORT VEHICLE, COMMAND POST, CSI VEHICLE” category… there were a lot of categories…
I am curious if anyone knows why cops ride mountain bikes? And also is there a standard size issued, or does each cop get his/her own? It would just seem to me that in the city, and in most places in the suburbs a road bike would be better suited to the generally paved surfaces.
A paved road is not a consideration when a criminal is trying to get away. A radio is faster anyway.
Not to mention, that techniques advocated by the International Police Mountain Bike Association (http://www.ipmba.org/), are better suited to a 26-inch wheeled mountain bike. Bike officers (law enforcement and EMS) are trained to go cross-country when necessary, and not be confined to using a paved roadway.
Fairly upright, strong for 250lbs of officer and equipment, designed for being dropped and rode off curbs. Low gearing for the sidewalk rides and big events.
Only real downside is weight which I bet seems pretty light when they’re already carrying radios, weapons, and ballistic vests.
Meanwhile, in the nations “Bike Capitol”, the police are using ATVs on bike trails and neglecting to use any bicycles when doing targeted enforcement of cyclists violation hotspots. Their social media person seems savvy, the actual operations people . . . not so much.
I don’t know, that logotype sure looks like a news channel to me. The gun sticking off the silhouette is a nice touch though.
I would have prefer one arm firing while jumping.
Ha! I hadn’t realized what that was. Here I was thinking it was their flagging handkerchief.
They were at Bike Beaverton this past Sunday, running a bike rodeo for the kids, and then participating in the actual ride.
That’s awful. They shouldn’t be rodeoing the kids. They’re KIDS!
I believe this police unit would be more effective, quicker to get to a location, and be able to stay there longer than a mounted patrol unit. At a fraction of the price.
I’m having a hard time grasping why there is even a contest for this in the first place.
Especially when it may likely be taxpayer monies going to pay for the decorative wrap – but I have no proof of that – why not pay for real equipment or real enforcement….sigh…I know, I know – perception and visibility = street cred.
Cops suck, so the only place they can get kudos is from other cops. Bam. Dumbest cop van contest.
I wonder if there are awards for things like “Most Tazings” and a DFL type award for “Most Incorrectly Executed No Knock Warrants Resulting in Accidental Death Of the Resident”?
Quentin, it’s a big world with lots of different people and different ideas.
They need the van because riding a bicycle in Beaverton is scary.
They occasionally do traffic enforcement in Beaverton too. My most direct interaction with them was as part of a Historic Beaverton Walking Tour. They ran interference and blocked traffic for a fairly large group of people who were being led around through the Central Beaverton neighborhood.
Aesthetically, the bike graphic might have missed the mark. The van’s rear wheel and the bike’s could’ve been melded into one. Amusing, beefy, manly, adult, provocative. The balance of the graphics could’ve been re-deployed appropriately, i.e., pantographed down in size. Critics, we’re naught else than dogs in search of hydrants.
I think it looks like the A-team van. “I pitty the fool”.
What a fine use of tax payer dollars. Thank goodness I don’t live in Beavertron.
I feel a little better about them investing in bike gear than high powered weaponry and surveillance equipment. But only a little.
It pains me to see that the city of Beaverton has enough money for crap like this! Not to mention the fact that they paved half of this entire town when all the roads seemed just FINE to me. And yet our middle school lost a half dozen teachers and the classes sizes are now at 50+. Even pro cyclists don’e have trailers this nice!
What a waste of tax dollars! And they are proud to show it off. What about putting money back into our kids/education to prevent the need for more police in the future? Humm…
I’m a Beaverton resident, and can’t help but notice in the midst of the worst recession since the 1930s, the Beaverton PD has money for vanity plates on their community relations vehicles, and all sorts of other fancy toys, like this custom-painted van, trailer, and fleet of bikes. I like that they have a bike patrol; but our schools are starving for money, and they clearly have too much.
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