Police Bike Patrol

The concept for the Bern Township Police Bicycle Patrol began during the summer of 2000 when the Greenfield’s area of the township was experiencing a rash of burglaries. Officers began to patrol the residential area on personally-owned bicycles while wearing plain clothes in hopes of locating the suspect. Over the course of two months of undercover patrol on the bicycles we were able to locate the suspect and stop him from committing additional burglaries in our area.
 
However, we identified a problem with our solution. As we patrolled, the resident population of Greenfield’s, now on a higher state of alert, were continuously calling in reports of suspicious persons on bicycles throughout the area.
 
We began to see a need to be able to identify ourselves as Police Officers and yet still maintain the stealthier approach to patrol that the bicycles offered. As we considered the pros and cons of a uniformed bicycle patrol we found that there were more pros than cons. Not only did we have several housing areas throughout the township that could benefit from bicycle patrols, but we also felt it would aid in the patrol of the Berks County Parks & Recreation Nature Trail, the various areas of the Blue Marsh Federal Parks that lie within our jurisdiction, and the many businesses and warehouses that are located along Route 183.
 
We also identified several special events that occur annually in the township in which the bicycle patrol could play an essential role. Those events included the March of Dimes Walk-a-thon, the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum’s WWII weekend and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles weekend, the Reading Fair, and the Halloween patrol. Since the Bicycle Patrols inception, the public’s overall reaction has been very positive at each of these events and locations.