Police Motorcycle Training - Moving Radar and Newly Assigned Motor Officers by Deputy Rob Grimsley, Charleston, South Carolina.

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Moving Radar and Newly Assigned Motor Officers
Becoming a motor officer is probably one of the hardest law enforcement classes a police officer will ever take. In most instances, it is a tough two-week class.

In it you are taught how to handle a police motorcycle in ways you couldn't imagine. During this time, coordinating your body's movement with that of the motorcycle is drilled into you by your instructors. Using your head and eyes, clutch and throttle, and feathering the back break are the basics that you have to master in order to maneuver the police motorcycle through the cone courses and other obstacles that you may encounter in your basic class.

While in training, you only have cones and obstacles to worry about. If you listen to your instructors, most of the time they will get you through the class. This can be a very stressful time, but this is all in a controlled environment. Once you successfully complete your training class you are now ready for a whole new phase of becoming a motorcycle officer.

At this point, you will more than likely be assigned to a Field Training Officer on your motor for an evaluation period. With the assistance of your assigned seasoned motorcycle officer you will have to learn how to use the police motorcycle in an enforcement mode—you will be listening to the radio for service calls, your head and eyes will be constantly moving and looking for traffic violations. All this will be going on in a matter of seconds, now in an uncontrolled environment. This is the real world and this is what a motor officer does on a daily basis.

Now comes the part that I believe the newly assigned motor officer should be eased into and not thrust into. Most agencies today have moving radar on their motors. To a newly assigned motor officer, I highly recommend not using the moving mode until that officer is feeling comfortable doing enforcement on their motorcycle. I don't let my motor officers use moving radar until 3 to 6 months after they have been riding in an enforcement mode.

I believe that radar should start out in a stationary mode in a fairly quiet subdivision. Once the new officer gets comfortable there, then you can move up to a more congested area. Let the officer get used to observing the speed of the violator, then confirming that with the radar and then going after the violator. I believe it is safer to do this in a stationary mode at first and then in a moving mode. In the moving mode, you have to do all the things I just mentioned, and then brake the motorcycle down and turn around in traffic and find the violator and catch up to them and make the stop.

It's been my findings over the years that you will reduce on duty incidents if you slowly introduce the moving radar to a newly assigned motor officer. Let that motor officer get comfortable with the motorcycle, and comfortable with doing his or her job from a motorcycle before we take them to the next step.

Master Deputy Rob Grimsley is the Motorcycle Coordinator for Charleston County Sheriff's Office in Charleston, South Carolina.

If you are a police motorcycle instructor and would like to share some of your knowledge with your fellow officers, please let us know.