“On April 12, 2001, I was on a directed patrol at a high-accident intersection on Highway 90. . . . A red-light violator caught my attention, and as I attempted to overtake the violator at a speed nearing 65 miles per hour, a woman driving a 1989 Dodge van pulled into the path of my Harley-Davidson. At the time, I was running with all emergency lights, flashers and siren operating. I was suddenly faced with a situation every motorcycle operator hopes will never happen.
“Utilizing the training I learned at the Northwestern University Traffic Institute, I judged the distance between my motorcycle and the van to be approximately 100 yards. Because of the hands-on training the class offered, I was able to keep a cool head and use a second vital technique–the proper operation of the braking systems on a Harley Road King. The motorcycle fishtailed approximately 100 feet, coming to rest in an upright position. At no time during the incident did I lose control of the motorcycle. I was able to avoid what, in my mind, would have been a multifatality collision.”
This is an excerpt from a letter received by Northwestern University Center for Public Safety, formerly the Traffic Institute, written by Sgt. James Barnes of the Milton Police Department, Milton, Fla.
In December 1999, Barnes attended the police motorcycle operator training course offered by Northwestern after the Milton police acquired the Harley.
“The first six months on that bike I had no formal training,” said Barnes in an interview. “I took the police motorcycle training in Gulfport, Miss. I was lucky, because I feel if I had not received that training, I would not be here today.”
Barnes’ experience is not unusual, said Pete Van Dyke, director of the Police Training Division at NU’s Center for Public Safety after a recent course in the Chicago area. “We get letters from police officers from all over the country telling us that the motorcycle training they received through our classes saved their lives.”
The Center for Public Safety is an independent center operated under the office of vice president of research at Northwestern. It is not a degree-granting program, but offers a variety of training courses for public service personnel. It has been training police and public safety personnel since 1936, when it was known as the Traffic Institute.
“Last year, we changed the name to better reflect the range of work we do,” said Van Dyke. The center presents training in more than 80 areas, with the police motorcycle training among the most popular. Offered for 15 years, the two-week class is for police officers assigned to a department’s motorcycle unit.
Learning to instruct
An additional week to become an instructor runs consecutively with the operator’s program.
An instructor then can teach the course to others in his own department or to community personnel. The training programs are offered throughout the country year-round, climate permitting. Besides many in the Chicago area, major police departments nationwide, including Houston, Ft. Lauderdale, Seattle, Oklahoma City and Tampa, have had their motorcycle officers trained by center personnel.
“We’ve even done a program for the Mexico City police department,” Van Dyke said.
“I estimate that we have trained over 2,500 officers in the 15 years we’ve run the program,” Van Dyke said.. “Keep in mind that perhaps as many as 1,000 of them are grads of the `Instructor’ program and many of them teach others regularly. . . . I would imagine that including the people who have been taught by those we’ve taught, it may be as many as 5,000, but I know that we’ve had about 2,500 complete our training.
“We’ve recently updated our fleet, including a brand-new trailer and semi truck to haul it. We now accommodate 18 operator students and about 10 to 14 instructor students in each of the courses we run–we’ll have 11 courses next year.”
Motorcycles included
The training bikes are provided by the Harley-Davidson Motor Co. The motorcycles, the FLHPI Road King, the FXDP Dyna Defender and the FLHTPI Electra Glide, are the models most police departments use.
Besides the bike, Harley also provides parts, a full-time mechanic and the trailer to transport the equipment. Harley has been involved with the police motorcycle training program since its inception.
“What’s in this for Harley-Davidson is that it’s the right thing for us to do,” said Jon Syverson, manager of Police and Fleet Sales for Harley-Davidson, Milwaukee. “In the past, I had heard from so many police departments that they needed a means to end the number of accidents that their motorcycle officers were involved in, and this training provides that. The survivability of just one officer is worth this entire program.”
For police, being assigned to a motorcycle unit is considered desirable.
“In a department of 100 people, 50 would apply for this type of work,” said Van Dyke. “The hours are good, as the departments usually only operate motorcycles during the day. The job is considered to be prestigious, and it allows the officers to be more directly involved with the community. Because everyone’s interested in the officer’s bike, they aren’t intimidated about approaching him.”
The Center for Public Safety program puts the would-be motorcycle police through their paces, Van Dyke said.
Learning the right combination of balance and technique results in having to pick up a “dropped” motorcycle a few dozen times before getting it right.
Officer Jim Nelson of the Buffalo Grove Police Department recently finished the instructor training, having taken the operator training three years ago.
“They focus very heavily on braking techniques in the training,” he said. “Motorcycles are not as visible as a patrol car, and sometimes what will happen is that you have a vehicle pulling out right in front of you. The braking techniques we learn are really emphasized for that reason.”
Because the training bikes are loaners, the students can push their capabilities to the maximum without worrying about damaging department motorcycles.
“The bikes in this fleet literally spend half their lives on their sides,” Van Dyke said. “They typically sustain between $1,400 and $2,000 worth of cosmetic damage at the end of the two-week program.”
Trooper Rick Humphreys of the Wisconsin State Patrol and an instructor for the program for five years, recalled his initial operator training 10 years ago and the number of times he dropped his bike when learning the “keyhole exercise,” (making a 360-degree turn in a small circle).
“My motorcycle ended up on its side 22 times before I was able to master that exercise,” he said. “Watching each other learn the maneuvers is usually pretty funny.”
As one of a dozen of the Northwestern core instructors nationwide, Humphreys has trained about 10 officers in his department and has participated in eight training sessions around the country.
“It’s always an eye-opening experience to take this training,” said Humphreys. “These are guys who always thought they were good riders, and they very quickly come to the conclusion that they are not nearly as good as they thought.”
Eight hours of the 80-hour program are spent in the classroom. For 72 hours, the officers are trained in maneuvers that would not be required of the civilian motorcycle operator. These include the 360-degree turn in an 18-foot circle; braking from 40 miles per hour within 60 feet; emergency braking techniques; slow cone-weaving; and slow motoring.
“The slow stuff is 100 times tougher than riding at a higher speed,” Van Dyke said.
“When I first took the operator training I had no idea it was even possible to operate a motorcycle at 3 miles per hour and not have the bike wobbling all over the place,” Nelson said. “A lot in law enforcement is operating the motorcycle within a confined area, so there is a lot of time spent on teaching the slow-speed maneuvers.”
Not everyone passes the course the first time. Humphreys said the length of the training was increased from one to two weeks about seven years ago, because the one-week program had a failure rate of 40 to 50 percent and it became apparent participants needed more time on the bikes.
The two-week operator training course has about an 80 percent success rate.
“If they come and repeat the course, they usually are successful the second time around,” he said. “But this is a very demanding program. I had one police department call and tell me they had 12 officers wanting to take the training. I sent them a training video of me doing some of the maneuvers they would be required to perform, and after they saw that, the number in that particular department wanting to do the training was down to three.”
Among clients of the Northwestern program are U.S. Park Police, who work hand-in-hand with the Secret Service for presidential protection. Of the hundreds of police motorcycles that were seen in this year’s presidential inaugural parade, the majority took the program.
Because Midwestern weather does not allow motorcycle officers to patrol for more than seven or eight months of the year, those who qualify as instructors offer refresher courses to fellow officers each spring.
“It’s a good thing to have so many officers qualified as instructors, because along with the new motor officer training within the department, the refresher courses are equally important,” Nelson said.
“I’d have to say that the majority of law-enforcement agencies send their motorcycle officers to some kind of a training program,” Humphreys said.
And for those who have mastered the necessary skills, according to Nelson, “This is the best job a kid could have.”
