If you’ve noticed more bike cops around, it’s part of a hot summer trend … er … well, it’s a sign of the growing importance of the bike patrols in SPD operations, East Precinct Capt. Jim Dermody told Capitol Hill Seattle. Turns out, bikes are better for policing, too, especially in the more dense areas:

“[The squad] covers a lot of the area you’d like to cover,” Dermody said. He said one of the biggest values is simply visibility of his police force on the streets but he also added that the bike cops excel in areas of community outreach and what Dermody called ‘problem solving’ — basically, the ability to better react to situations encountered in a dense, urban environment. Dermody said the bikers are also important for the increasing number of public events in the East Precinct — both what he called community events and “free speech” events, also known as protests.

Bike cops are more cost efficient, too. Read the rest of the story, which includes some SPD bike cop history, too.

Also, on the subject of cycle cop chic, this reminds me of a SeattleCrime post about SPD’s hip fixie patrol.