Imagine you’re riding your bike on a path like the Springwater Corridor and a police officer flags you down and asks to borrow your bike for a chase. That’s what happened to two people on Sunday morning on the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail in Vancouver, Washington.
According to body cam footage posted to social media by the Vancouver Police Department Wednesday, officers spotted someone they say had several outstanding warrants. In the video, you first see an officer approach the suspect. The suspect was initially on a bike, but immediately threw it down in favor of running away.
The officer then gave chase on foot. When he saw someone on a bike coming toward him, the officer demanded to use his bike. At first he asked, “Can I use your bike?,” which was quickly followed by “Let me use your bike.” The bike rider obliged, saying, “Be careful,” as he relinquished his beloved bike to the officer. It took a few seconds for the officer to figure out how to operate the bike, but once he did, the video shows him reaching a top speed of 18 mph.
The suspect ultimately tired out, gave up, and was arrested.
“When it comes to catching bad guys, sometimes you’ve gotta improvise,” VPD posted on social media. “With eyes still on this suspect (who had several warrants) and no time to waste, Officers Rich and Copley made quick tactical decisions to commandeer bicycles (thanks to two helpful citizens).”
The body cam shows that the e-bike was likely a Lectric XP 3.0. It has a motor that puts out 1000W of power (the legal maximum for e-bikes is 750W), a throttle, and a maximum speed of 28 mph. Ironically, those specs make the bike illegal for use on paved paths like the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail. I guess the officer was more interested in catching a suspect than ticketing someone who looked to be riding their e-bike safely.
Would you give up your bike if a cop demanded it for use in a chase?This story made me wonder about the law and whether you’d be required to comply with their request. It looks like the law varies from state to state, but in general, the answer is no. Police usually cannot force you to give up your vehicle for use in a chase. I think there are exceptions in the case of imminent danger or public harm, but if someone knows for sure, I’d love to hear more in the comments.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
After yesterday’s discussion at BHH, I wonder if the bike owner would be liable if the police crashed the bike, either for the cost of the bike and/or for injuries to the officer or to anyone else.
I also wonder whether the police would have made a similar “request”/demand of the driver of a motor vehicle.
I am not an attorney, but I think the general legal advice they give is that unless the police are legally empowered to compel you to do something, do not agree to do something. This applies to giving information, allowing your property/vehicle to be searched, etc.
Something else to factor in is how much one feels part of the community in which they are living. After all, letting the police chase down a criminal who may have harmed others and may do it again with your vehicle is helping the community at large. If one does not care for the community at large, I imagine withholding aid from the police in the heat of the moment is probably wise advise.
Also, I can’t help but think that not letting police search one’s own home/not give out information (which I 100% agree with you should not be done) and helping arrest a fugitive in plain view is an apples and oranges comparison.
Commandeering a car is such a trope in media that I have to imagine that yes, police have made and will again at some point make such a request to use a motor vehicle.
As for liability, I can’t imagine any jury on either side of Columbia is going to hold someone liable for acting in good faith immediately before an officer hurts themself in a bike crash.
Well… people are often found liable when others are injured on their property, in or around their cars, etc. Some of these cases look to all the world like attempts to shake some money out of insurance companies (sometimes by other insurance companies, prompted by other insurance companies, or perhaps necessitated by high costs of health care not being covered by insurers). But they do take the form of suits against individuals, and my understanding is that the fact that the defendant is insured is supposed to be completely ignored by the jury in all phases of the trial.
If I lent someone a bike that was defective and that defect caused an injury I might reasonably end up being liable. Perhaps a brake cable is in bad condition, they grab the brakes with full force, the cable breaks, and they crash the bike. In some circumstances that would look really bad in front of a jury. Maybe I lent the bike to a kid and the kid was badly injured — people always want to find some fully blameworthy adult when kids are hurt and might be willing to find the bike-lender liable even if the bike was totally fine! In the case where a police officer “commandeered” the bike maybe my liability is mitigated because the decision to lend it was made quickly and at their suggestion, possibly with a hint of coercion. Conversely to if I’d lent it to a kid, where the plaintiff would play up their vulnerability and innocence and the responsibility I have over them, if I’d lent it to a cop, my defense would play up the cop’s perceived invulnerability and power and imply that suing me is kind of a weak move (fairly or not). Hopefully that’s good enough that I’m not found liable. Might depend on the specifics.
On the other hand, if the police damaged the bike during the chase I wouldn’t count on recovering anything from them. There have been lots of cases where police damaged innocent people’s property (worth a lot more than a bike) and avoided liability.
Having just read about police destroying a Texas woman’s house in the course of pursuing a suspect, then her legal battles caused by laws not supporting her claims for reimbursement, I agree.
Attorney’s advice should be tailored to the individual circumstance.
Sounds like the cop was also breaking Vancouver’s mandatory helmet law.
Sounds like they should be applauded for their quick and innovative thinking .
A couple of plainclothes cops didn’t identify themselves and then violently attacked my friend because he wasn’t using a headlight at civil twilight. Your applause tells me you probably have been lucky in life, I’ll hold off on helping cops, and think it is worth noting that this is another case of the laws being for everyone else but not for them. I’m sure if this had happened at dusk they wouldn’t have worried anymore about making sure they had a headlight than they worried about putting on a helmet, but if they are bored and you don’t have a helmet on, well that’s a tasing.
https://bikeportland.org/2009/02/04/phil-sano-taser-incident-goes-to-trial-next-week-14325
You can simultaneously applaud one individual for their behavior in one incident while criticizing a different officer for their behavior in a different incident.
How exactly do you propose that you would determine whether the cop demanding your property to aid in a chase was a sadistic torturer or a real andy griffith type? If they have a taser torture device on their person I would honestly urge folks not to hand over their property because if they use your bike to chase someone down and then torture them with an electroshock device they might be a criminal or they might have all the charges against them dropped because they did nothing wrong but either way you will have been complicit in torturing another person.
“How exactly do you propose that you would determine whether the cop demanding your property to aid in a chase was a sadistic torturer or a real andy griffith type?”
The same way you determine that anybody else is evil or not.
I dunno, man. Sounds like you have the answers though.
I’d say the Vancouver cops look like idiots here – like guys who have watched too much TV.
Just one correction, that model of ebike ships to consumers as a class 2 but can be switched to a class 3 in it’s settings if desired and the rider knows how.
The specs given for the XP 3.0 are inaccurate. If you keep reading below on the vendor page: the motor is 500W and most of them max at 18mph or around 20mph to meet class 2 specs. I have one of these and it only reaches 18mph my guess is the police rider in the video is simply using the throttle which causes it to ready this max speed. That speed is plenty for getting between locations.
Can you clarify what you’re trying to imply here? Do you think the officer should have abandoned the foot pursuit as soon as they spotted an e-bike, and then performed a spot inspection for illegal equipment?
Is this a “wink wink, nudge nudge” thing where we’re all supposed to know what you mean? Because at face value this is a very confusing piece of writing. I thought BikePortland supported electric bikes but I’m not sure anymore?
Nothing implied here. Just something I thought was notable so I wanted to point it out. Folks need to understand that not every single thing I type is trying to push some agenda.
Sorry it’s confusing. Wasn’t my best piece of writing ever.
Police have commandeered bikes before, like here:
https://www.bicycling.com/culture/a42460728/cop-borrows-bike-to-chase-criminal/
When I read this, my mind went straight to all the scenes in movies and TV where the pursuer (cops, 007, inspector Clouseau) commandeer cars driven by student drivers, buses, golf carts, horses, cranes, motorcycles, disguises and everything else during chase scenes.
“Would you give up your bike if a cop demanded it for use in a chase?”
Jonathan, by your question I get the feeling you would rather refuse letting a police officer borrow your bike rather than helping them catch a criminal on a bike path. If so, that’s a weird take for someone who I would think, wouldn’t want criminals on our bike paths. Wouldn’t it actually be cool if your bike was used to catch a criminal?