The town of Prescott Valley Police Department is back on bikes.

At least some officers are. As part of the PVPD bike patrol, officers trade in their typical cruisers for bikes, part of the time.

The Prescott Valley program was originally started in 1997 by current Sergeants Scott Stebbins and Brandon Bonney. Stebbins started his stint as a bike patrol officer soon after he graduated from the Northern Arizona Regional Training Academy in Prescott Valley. He patrolled in a vehicle for eight months and then joined the bike patrol.Stebbins said that while on a bike, officers are able to observe and react to things they may not see from their patrol cars.

It’s also easier to connect to the public, he said.

“The bikes are a great community policing tool to meet citizens,” Stebbins said. “When you’re on a bike, people come up and talk.”

The first PVPD bike patrol was active for almost two and half years until the economy and a growing Prescott Valley necessitated more officers on the streets in a patrol car. Those needs coupled with the recession kept the bikes garaged.

Officer Stebbins with his bike

Stebbins never lost his passion for the program. Eager to see the bike patrol continue, Stebbins recently obtained authorization for certified officers to carry their bikes on their patrol cars.  The department has certified 11 officers in bike patrol. Two of the officers, Stebbins and Officer Jason Lohman, have logged another 40 hours of advanced training.

These officers can park their car and ride in a patrol area. To maintain the ability to quickly respond to another incident if needed, they stay within a five minute ride back to their vehicle.

Police Chief Bryan Jarrell, who also is a trained police cyclist, voiced the value of the program.

“I have experienced the tremendous benefit to having police officers on bikes,” Jarrell said. “We saw police officers ride right up to people who were doing drug transactions and didn’t realize it was the police.”

Training for the bike patrol is grueling. Officers complete 40 hours of instruction on a broad range of skills and topics, including long ride physical endurance, obstacle courses with steps, curbs and seesaws, timed cone drills, shooting after a hard ride, using a bike to control suspects, and even traffic stops. Stebbins once made a DUI arrest after chasing down an admittedly slow moving impaired driver on his bike.

“It’s an effective tool and just one more approach we can rely on to serve this community the most efficient way possible,” Jarrell said.