Photo: General Police Inspectorate

Twenty patrol police officers from Cahul and Balti, from which four are women, have learned how to perform efficiently the patrolling functions using a bicycle.

For one week they have been trained based on an internationally recognized curriculum on how to handle a bike while patrolling in public places and ensuring the security of men and women.

First police bike patrol service was launched in Chisinau in October 2017 as a pilot project with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Moldova. During almost one year 20 police officers have patrolled in Chisinau parks, ensuring the security of citizens and increasing in this way the level of trust in police forces. They handled different cases from giving warnings to persons disturbing the public order to finding the parents of lost children.

“I knew about my colleagues from Chisinau and I was thinking it would be great to have a police bike patrol unit in Balti as well. I do think this is a very useful service for the community. Only by seeing us every day next to them, men and women will feel more secure and safe,” notes Tudor Cocieru from Balti Police Inspectorate.

Besides theoretical classes, training participants practiced extensively to develop safe cycling skills, learning how to ride the bike in different ways, how to avoid obstacles, how to stop short and how to patrol through a crowd.

“This is something new for me and for the police from Cahul. Although initially the exercises seemed to be easy to do, it was not the case. We are preparing ourselves to face any kind of situation, to catch a thief or to give first medical aid if necessary,” mentioned Elena Lîsenco from Cahul Police Inspectorate.  

The success of police bicycle patrol as part of the community policing concept has been proved with many occasions in different jurisdictions. Closer police-community relations, cost savings, faster response times, reaching places with difficult accessibility and environmental benefits are some of the advantages of introducing police bike patrols.

Two bike patrol units, consisting of 10 police officers each, will be established this year in Balti and Cahul towns with the support of the UNDP Project “Support to police reform in Moldova”, funded by the U.S. Government. The assistance provided through the project comes to support the community policing and increase public trust in police.