{"id":25928,"date":"2015-01-24T17:12:50","date_gmt":"2015-01-24T16:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/?p=25928"},"modified":"2015-01-24T17:28:48","modified_gmt":"2015-01-24T16:28:48","slug":"policeman-loves-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2015\/01\/24\/policeman-loves-cycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Policeman who loves cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>A lot of us just ride a bike for fun. However there are professionals. We don&#8217;t mean professional racers this time. We mean people who are riding because it&#8217;s part of their work. Here we are with one of them: Jim Demsko, policeman from\u00a0Reading, Pennsylvania, USA.<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>To see and to be seen<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cOur bikes are sturdy but old,\u201d says police officer Jim Demsko, who rides a bike on daily basis through the streets of Reading. The city has almost 90 thousand citizens. Jim&#8217;s sure, that when people see his bike in the area, they know the police are somewhere around. When on bike patrol they ride all day, all weather, and any time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/01\/police2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-25932 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/01\/police2-620x735.jpg\" alt=\"Police officer riding a bike in Reading, Pennsylvania\" width=\"620\" height=\"735\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jim thinks, that people are used to looking for police cars when committing crimes.\u00a0Even though policemen have bright yellow shirts and helmets &#8211; no one seems to notice them.\u00a0They have ridden up and suddenly been in the middle of a drugs deal, solicitation and physical\u00a0assaults.<\/p>\n<h2>Bicycle makes you approachable<\/h2>\n<p>Once they cycled past a male in an alley and engaged in some conversation.\u00a0It was just a small talk but Jim always tries to have a interaction with everyone.\u00a0About two weeks later it was discovered this male had committed two murders in another area.\u00a0\u201cWe were able to arrest him pretty much only because of that small little chat I had with him in the quiet alley. Which never would have been possible without being on a bike.\u201d Jim explained.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/01\/police5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-25933 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/01\/police5-620x641.jpg\" alt=\"Fire truck in Reading, Pennsylvania\" width=\"620\" height=\"641\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A cop on a bike on the side walk, or behind a house, is very approachable.\u00a0 Not being in a car \u2013 which is a barrier between citizens and the police \u2013 is a huge advantage when trying to talk to people.\u00a0Citizens do not want to be seen leaning into a cop car chatting. Police cyclists daily mileage is varied.\u00a0Jim and his crew do between 15 to 30 miles on every shift.<\/p>\n<h2>Bulletproof vest is a like hug from a bear<\/h2>\n<p>The biggest thing with the equipment is the bulletproof vest.\u00a0It wraps around the bodies of policemen at work and must be securely fastened to prevent it from moving.\u00a0This makes it very hard to expand the lungs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/01\/jim.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-25930 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/01\/jim-620x447.png\" alt=\"Police officers on a bike patrol in Reading, Pennsylvania\" width=\"620\" height=\"447\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On one\u00a0photo, you can see Jim riding a street ramp with his bike. He makes a stop in the park\u00a0once or twice a week. This activity has helped to make better relationships between officers and the kids.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/01\/12.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-25929 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/01\/12-620x413.jpg\" alt=\"Police officer riding a bike on a ramp\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nothing crazy but some jumps in all the equipment really has got the kids going. Jim&#8217;s never really thought much of it until someone outside was like &#8220;wow that is great, this 40 year old cop on a 20 year old bike like the bike kids!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you like our insight into the world of policemen on bikes? Maybe you will also like our story about an engineer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/25905\/bike-commuting-harder-south-pole\/\" target=\"_blank\">cycling on a South pole<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot of us just ride a bike for fun. However there are professionals. We don&#8217;t mean professional racers this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[334,330],"tags":[],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-25928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-socialising-and-culture","category-urban-cycling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Policeman who loves cycling - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A lot of us just ride a bike for fun. However there are professionals. We don&#039;t mean professional racers this time. 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We mean people who are riding because\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2015\/01\/24\/policeman-loves-cycling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-24T16:12:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-24T16:28:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/01\/opener1_police.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adam Marsal\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2015\/01\/24\/policeman-loves-cycling\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2015\/01\/24\/policeman-loves-cycling\/\",\"name\":\"Policeman who loves cycling - \u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2015\/01\/24\/policeman-loves-cycling\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2015\/01\/24\/policeman-loves-cycling\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2015\/01\/opener1_police.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-24T16:12:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-01-24T16:28:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"A lot of us just ride a bike for fun. 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