`WHEELMEN': CAPE POLICE OFFICERS TRAIN FOR PATROLS ON MOTOCYCLES

At first glance, they look like something out of the television series "CHiP's" transplanted onto the streets of Cape Girardeau. But when the helmets are taken off, they are not actors sitting on the police-outfitted motorcycles.

"In Kansas City, motorcycle unit officers call themselves `wheelmen' of the `wheels unit' we liked that we're the wheelmen of Cape Girardeau," said Officer Ken Rinehart, a motorcycle officer with the Cape Girardeau police.

Rinehart and Officer J.R. Davis recently returned from a two-week motorcycle police training seminar in Kansas City.

"I've ridden motorcycles all of my life," Rinehart said. "But in the short time that we were in Kansas City, I learned about what these bikes are really capable of.

"People will say that they can ride a motorcycle, but the question is do they know how to `operate' one," he said. "There's a big difference between the two."

The Cape Girardeau Police Department recently purchased two Kawasaki KZ1000 police-issue touring-sized motorcycles, to replace the 500cc Hondas the department used previously.

The motorcycles are used exclusively within the traffic division of the department to catch speeders, work accidents and for traffic control.

"I really preferred working in the traffic division in the first place," Rinehart said. "The motorcycle is just an added bonus."

Unlike their predecessors, the new motorcycles are outfitted with moving radar guns that can be used while the officer is patrolling. Before, officers were forced to stop and use a hand-held radar gun to target speeders. Patrolmen still carry the hand-held radar guns within the motorcycle's saddle bags.

The motorcycles are also outfitted with flashing red strobe lights, a siren, radio and scanning equipment and a backup battery pack to prevent drain on the motorcycle's primary battery.

The officers are literally "wired" into their motorcycles, when they hook the radio gear they wear into the outlet jutting out from under the seat.

"Our helmets have voice-activated microphones in them; all we have to do is talk to interrupt the radio band," Rinehart said.

But the officers have two other options, too. The motorcycles are outfitted with a hand-held microphone, like the ones in squad cars, and the mobile radio units they wear on their gun belts. The officers can receive radio transmissions with the ignition key off.

The radio equipment on the motorcycles is linked with a battery-pack/control box mounted over the rear tire. The box sits on rubber "shocks" so that it moves with the motorcycle, to serve as a natural balancing mechanism.

All of the controls are at the thumb-tips of the motorcycle's operator, for the convenience and safety of the officers.

The brand-new motorcycles accompanied Officers Rinehart and Davis to Kansas City.

"You're supposed to train on the bike you'll be using on the street," Rinehart said. But that wasn't the case for either of the Cape Girardeau officers during the training session.

Due to mechanical difficulties, at separate points during the training, both officers had to borrow a motorcycle from the Kansas City police.

While on a borrowed unit, Rinehart had an accident that landed him in the hospital.

"Everyone would fall at one point or another during the training even the instructors," Rinehart said. "The day I fell, we were supposed to go into a 62-foot coned-off area at 40 miles per hour, where we were supposed to bring the bike to a dead stop; that's not a lot of room to come to a dead stop at that speed.

"I went into it at about 45 miles per hour and locked up my front brakes trying to stop," Rinehart explained. "It was really kind of embarrassing they called an ambulance, all the officers were there, even a television crew showed up."

Although the Cape Girardeau police usually only operate the motorcycles during the summer when it is not raining, Rinehart said that he and Davis were trained to ride in all kinds of weather.

"It sleeted one of the days we were up there," Rinehart said. "And several of the other days, we were riding in the pouring rain. It was raining so hard that we had standing water in our saddle bags."

A drawback to doing the same in Cape Girardeau, is that the equipment on the city's motorcycles is not completely weather-resistant.

Rinehart said that motorcycles can be extremely beneficial to a police force.

"With the motorcycles, you can get through backed-up traffic to the scene of an accident and you can ride up over curbs to get around stopped vehicles," Rinehart said.

On Thursday, when a tractor-trailer truck overturned on Interstate 55 near the Dutchtown exit, Davis was able to weave through the backed up traffic to arrive on the scene first.

"Motorcycles are also less visible than police cars," Rinehart said. "If we get a call that there are speeders in a neighborhood, we could send a patrol car to sit there and monitor it.

"But people can see the patrol cars from a long way away," he continued. "But the motorcycle is harder to spot; people can go flying by and not even know I'm sitting there."

When pulling a suspect vehicle over, the officer will position the motorcycle in a diagonal line to the rear of the vehicle, pointing out toward the passing traffic, to serve as a shield between himself and the driver, if necessary.

"If I receive information that the driver is (wanted), I can expect that help is nearby, or I will stall him by asking for his registration and license information until help arrives," Rinehart said.

But the officers feel that they are also more "in touch" with the public when patrolling on a motorcycle.

"On the motorcycles you're really more aware of everything; I can stop and answer questions when people wave to me," Rinehart said. "A lot of people are surprised to see a motorcycle patrol in Cape Girardeau."

Both Rinehart and Davis said that they are proud of the certificate they received after completing the two-week training course in Kansas City.

Both officers "earned their wings" during the training. They were each given a pin they wear over their name tags, recognizing their certification through the course.

"I was so surprised at the amazing things you can do on a motorcycle," Davis said. "And where else can you ride a motorcycle all day and get paid for it?"