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Question for Motorcycle Officers

mean dad

mean dad

petulant bisket
Joined
Aug 18, 2009
Location
California
Moto(s)
Smoke and mirrors
BARF perks
AMA #575843
Do y'all ride in your off time? There's someone in my circle of friends who just became a motocop and he's selling his Harley. I haven't talked to him directly but the word I get is that if he has to ride at work he doesn't want to ride at home.

His lady is pregnant so we're thinking maybe she's calling the shots? To be honest I don't know how long he's had his personal motorcycle nor how long he's been riding, but then it seems odd if he's not into riding to take a position as a moto cop.
 
Over the years I've had many cops as students in the basic (new rider) course as a prerequisite to them riding a moto on duty. Almost all of them don't / didn't ride off duty. I too thought it was weird.
 
Enchanter said:
Over the years I've had many cops as students in the basic (new rider) course as a prerequisite to them riding a moto on duty. Almost all of them don't / didn't ride off duty. I too thought it was weird.
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Not surprising if you know the "why" behind it. Police Motors is the hardest to obtain yet most sought-after specialty position in police work. Highly competitive to get on, toughest training/school are typical comments.

Some, far from all, motors go on to get their own bike after a year or three of police riding. Its an odd thing, in my experience watching (most) riding a non-police bike is a bit funny- the lines they choose are odd or non- existent/vary with every turn, they don't brake or accelerate in the same fashion as a good street rider and they always, 100% always have to look at themselves in store-front glass as mirrors as they go by. :afm199
 
I've ridden with a few motorcycle police officers that liked to ride when not on duty. Usually they went out of their way to not let other riders know that they were police officers. I can think of one in particular who rode a Ducati and was fairly quick. I don't know of any that rode both on and off duty for decades, though.
 
I've been riding since 2007 and have been a motor cop for the last 3 years. I'm paid to ride as a full time job, which is awesome. I have a personal motorcycle that I don't ride as much as I'd like to. But that was also the case before the assignment, and has more to do with family, life, etc. The main difference is that because I'm already on the saddle so often at work, I don't get that itch to ride on my time off as much as I used to.

I think it's the best assignment, but as far as the most sought out assignment? I'm not so sure. It seems many younger officers have no desire to ride. The motor course is difficult, but not academically. It is physically exhausting. I'd go back to the hotel room and melt into the couch every day. Also, your hands. It wasn't so much being sore as it felt like I lost soooo much of my grip strength staying in the friction zone all day long, for 3 weeks straight including the pretraining we did. One really needs to be up to speed before they start the course. If one isn't up to speed by day 3 (out of 10) they will be invited to leave. On a side note, I've attended the drug recognition expert course and advanced collision investigation course, and those are a couple of the most academically challenging courses.

We have an officer right now who doesn't ride and doesn't have his m1 yet, interested in getting his m1 and becoming a motor officer. I kinda worry about that. It seems like a lot for a first time rider to jump into. They don't have the years of experience of riding that we all rely on out there. And then you're adding an enforcement aspect that really ups everything. It's not like casual riding when chasing down speeders, looking for violations, and making stops all while defensive driving like nothing on 4 wheels. Some newer riders aren't comfortable with lane splitting. But when I'm doing distracted driving enforcement, I'm splitting lanes while looking for cell phone violators on both sides. Just stopping vehicles is a lot different than in a car. You have to always take into account the slope, grade, and positing that you don't need to consider in a car. When I first started on the streets, I embarrassingly dropped the motor a few times, including while making car stops.
 
NorCalBusa said:
Not surprising if you know the "why" behind it. Police Motors is the hardest to obtain yet most sought-after specialty position in police work. Highly competitive to get on, toughest training/school are typical comments.
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Aside from our large recruiting push in general, we have an internal push for more motors because few people want to do it. It's also one of the hardest courses.

Of the five or so motors I know, I only know of one who rides in his off-time. And he only does track days. They can basically ride however they want on duty, and get a ton of seat time, so there's no benefit to riding off duty.
 
One thing about speed enforcement is that I often have to speed in order to catch up to the violators.

Another thing about motors...almost everyone I stop gets a citation.
 
Kornholio said:
Isn't that basically the mentality of most officers working traffic, whether they're motors or not?
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Yeah.

But who wants to traffic if they're not on a motor? :mm4l:teeth

Traffic verse other assignments, like patrol. When I work Patrol I make a lot fewer stops and give a lot more warnings.
 
Out here, I don't think any motors are assigned to patrol. They're just on traffic duty so there's that. Then again, they don't ride year round here as for half the year it's either way too damn hot or way too damn cold to be on a motorcycle all day.

EDIT: I did notice the other day while at the local dealer that CPD had a R1250RTP sitting on the floor already all kitted out. They just bought their first one and the sales guy was telling me they're converting their fleet away from Road Kings. :thumbup

358081683_648831707273656_8479304335090151716_n.jpg
 
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Kornholio said:
Out here, I don't think any motors are assigned to patrol. They're just on traffic duty so there's that. Then again, they don't ride year round here as for half the year it's either way too damn hot or way too damn cold to be on a motorcycle all day.

EDIT: I did notice the other day while at the local dealer that CPD had a R1250RTP sitting on the floor already all kitted out. They just bought their first one and the sales guy was telling me they're converting their fleet away from Road Kings. :thumbup

358081683_648831707273656_8479304335090151716_n.jpg
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Working traffic, I'm only in a car (2023 Durango with ghost markings) when it's raining hard. If it's light on and off sprinkling, I usually stay on the motor.

Most City departments in California work temporary assignments, usually between 2-5 years. With all city departments here, one starts on patrol, and most do a significant portion of their careers on patrol, as one usually has to rotate back for a while before getting into another special assignment. That is, until one promotes to a rank higher than sergeant or lieutenant.

I'm looking at less than 2 more years, so I'm planning to finish out my career on the motor, unless I get promoted to sergeant, which could happen soon...or not.

Oh, and the R1250RTP is an awesome piece of machinery. I just might buy a civilian version after I retire.
 
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