This article is the second in a series profiling the nominees for the 2008 Alice B. Toeclips Awards. This year's nominees include a few who were profiled here last year – Portland bicycle attorney Mark Ginsberg; bike commuting family superstars Greg, Antonia and Curtis MacNaughton; and bike culture leader Sara Stout. This article was written by BTA correspondent John McLaren.

Bike patrols are an essential ingredient of police work in the Central Point, a town of 16,000 in southern Oregon. Eight officers – more than one-third of the 23 sworn officers – are on the bike patrol team. And more are welcome to join, if they are willing and complete a 40-hour mountain bike training course.

Chief Jon Zeliff, an avid recreational cyclist, doesn’t ride with the patrol but he helped establish it four years ago when he took over as head of the Central Point police force. The chief’s “support for bike patrol and bicycle safety and education in the community has been overwhelming,” says bike Sgt. Jeff Britton, who nominated Zeliff for an Alice Award. The modest Zeliff returns the compliment. “The reality is that Sgt. Britton does all the work, and I make sure they have the support and tools and funding they need,” he says.

In the mid-90s Zeliff was a “charter member” of the then-new Grants Pass police bike patrol. Back then the officers provided their own bikes. Today each new Central Point patrol member is issued a new Cannondale Police Interceptor bicycle. The bikes and their riders are equipped to ride year round in all kinds of weather, Zeliff says, and the bikes are normally “recycled” after two or three years.

The bike patrol officers work on day and night shifts and during special events. They focus their patrols in the downtown area as well as parks and other areas hard to patrol by car. Team members usually travel together in pairs but they can also take their bikes with them in patrol cars fitted with bike racks, ready for immediate use.

The bike team officers are also available to teach bicycle safety, helmet fitting and bicycle laws at the elementary schools, as well as community groups and events, and the department has given hundreds of helmets to local kids. Last year the bike patrol team put on three bicycle rodeos for the youngsters.

Zeliff likens the bicycle officer of today to the traditional cop walking a beat but with much more sophisticated tools. The bicycle allows the officers to interact with citizens and make personal contacts, in a way that would not be possible in cars. In addition, bikes are good for the health and condition of the officers riding them. They also are a deterrent to would-be criminals who are faced with an array of potential adversaries with bikes added to patrol cars and foot patrol officers.

Next nominee: Providence St. Vincent Medical Center bike organizer Scott Weber.

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