Maple Valley Police officers are spending less time in their cars and more time on their bicycles lately.

It’s one of the community oriented initiatives Chief Michelle Bennett has emphasized since she returned to the department in June. She had spent the previous year serving as the operations captain at King County Sheriff Precinct 3 in Maple Valley following her promotion to captain.

“It’s more community friendly, more visible to the community, more accessible,” Bennett said. “When you’re in a car behind a window it’s a lot more daunting to approach an officer.”

Maple Valley has always had officers certified for bicycle patrol but Bennett said “since my return to the city hat’s become a big focus” because it has so many advantages.

There are currently six certified officers with the hope that four others will become certified in coming months, Bennett said, and she hopes to add six more bicycles so that each cop that is certified will have one by this time next year. There are currently four bicycles available.

“It will be really nice,” she said. “You’ll see a lot more bicycle patrols out there.”

Storefront officer Jeff Harmon, who is one of the bicycle patrol certified officers, said there are many advantages to cruising the city on two wheels versus four.

On a bicycle they can go out and patrol business plazas, apartment complexes, community events, as well as all of the amenities surrounding Lake Wilderness including the park, the trail and the arboretum.

“It’s a nice deterrent to have us out on the trail,” Harmon said. “People have stopped me and said, ‘This is great. I can’t believe you’re out here on the bike.’ People feel like we’re much more approachable on the bike.”

Not to mention that the bikes can go places cars can’t as well as provide a more stealthy approach compared to patrol on four wheels.

“We were riding on the trail, we ended up riding past an area where we noticed the smell of marijuana,” Harmon said. “We rode back and found three or four juveniles smoking marijuana. In the car with the windows up, we wouldn’t have even smelled it, and they would have heard us coming.”

In order to ride bicycle patrol, Harmon said, officers take a week long course to learn various techniques and the training is provided by King County.

“We are trained to use the bicycles specifically for patrol circumstances,” he said. “They’ll teach you special ways to mount and dismount and how to use your bike as a shield … and how to ride up and down stairs and over curbs.”

Bennett added that the Maple Valley Police Explorers Post members have also been out on bicycle patrol with officers at Lake Wilderness as part of that learning experience which is just another bonus.

Having bicycle patrols is just another way to improve the department’s community service efforts, Bennett said, and so far it’s been positively received.

“It makes the community feel safer,” she said. “It enhances the safety and security of Maple Valley.”