Dear Editor,

As a Guyanese back home on vacation for Carifesta, I am particularly delighted to see that the City of Georgetown has opted to establish a Police Bike Patrol Unit. This type of policing has become enormously popular in an almost every city in the developed world, and my only gripe is that it was not implemented in Guyana before.

The visibility of an officer on a bicycle cannot be matched. With this visibility also comes an increase in human contact with the community. In fact, it is much like the old ‘beat police’ who used to walk the streets. They knew people by name and had a good feel for the neighbourhoods at a personal level. On a bicycle, an officer is much more approachable than in a car and can help in building new contacts and trust from the citizens, which we most certainly need in Guyana. It will allow our police officers to become more proactive in fighting crime rather than the reactive mode that they have become better known for in recent times. Police in this country need to become much more aware of concerns before they turn into problems.

I hope that consideration is also being given to utilizing this bicycle patrol for public events such as concerts, sporting events, festivals, road races and other large gatherings as is done in North America. It has been proved that an officer can move much more quickly through a crowd while on a bike, and can find short cuts, etc, while a patrol vehicle would have very diminished mobility in the same situation.

This same mobility also adds a ‘stealth’ advantage to bike patrols versus patrol vehicles. An officer on a bike is much smaller, quieter, and can go places that are not easily accessible to patrol vehicles. Also, a person fleeing from an officer generally can’t outrun an officer on a bike.

Keep up the good work City Hall! I hope that this initiative gets the support of everyone, particularly the business community principally in the downtown area.

Yours faithfully,
Ian Mackay