Police and fire chiefs update commission on bike patrol e-bike, SWAT participation, incident reports and public safety building

Police Chief reported April 14 that the department recently acquired a Recon Power Bikes Interceptor electric patrol bike for bike-unit use at events and in park areas and demonstrated its features to the commission. Officer Tony Becker, who described the model, said it has a 1,000-watt mid-drive motor, a 21 amp-hour battery (an upgrade from the previous 17 Ah), hydraulic disc brakes, integrated lights and selectable assist modes; he said throttle-only operation can reach up to about 28 miles per hour though he noted legal limits for e-bikes vary by jurisdiction and use.

Nut graf: The department framed the e-bike as both a public-relations and operational tool for crowded events, parks and downtown patrol, and said it also helps officers reach calls with less fatigue on multi-shift days.

Separately, an officer described recent selection to the countywide Special Response Team (SRT), explaining the SRT is a mutual-aid unit that fields entry, sniper and negotiation teams for high-risk calls such as hostage situations, active-shooter incidents and high-risk warrants. The SRT member said training is scenario-based and requires roughly 16 hours per month of team training and that the countywide team is composed of officers from multiple jurisdictions.

Police Chief provided a monthly summary of notable calls including disorderly conduct with officer assault, multiple impaired-driving arrests, an unusual vehicle crash that breached marina planters, drug arrests connected to a larger investigation, threats to a school and several medical and welfare calls; the chief suggested producing the monthly incident list as a written report for commissioners while protecting confidentiality. One commissioner said names should not be shared and asked for a written summary to allow follow-up questions; the chief agreed to provide a redacted written report for commissioners.

Fire Chief reviewed EMS and fire statistics for March: EMS made 38 calls with roughly a 77/23 percent transport-to-non-transport split; average response time across mutual-aid runs was about 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Fire crews responded to a complex call at Harbor Campus where smoke and a partially inoperative backup generator complicated resident evacuations; mutual aid was requested to help check residents and elevators. The department said the lift-assist ordinance is reducing appropriate calls and that response times can be skewed upward by out-of-city mutual-aid runs.

The chiefs also noted routine business items covered earlier in the meeting: review of department invoices and bills, a new radar device purchase for patrol squads, and plans for a public safety building groundbreaking scheduled for May 6 at 3:30 p.m.

Ending: The commission accepted the reports and asked staff to provide a redacted written incidents summary for future meetings; chiefs said they will continue to report operational metrics and return with requested detail on response-time calculations.