Foot and/or Bicycle Patrols in Major Texas Metropolitan Police Departments

• Main Author: Pavlik, Wayne Louis
• Other Authors: Caeti, Tory J.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Texas 2006
• Subjects: Police patrol > Texas.; Bicycle police > Texas.; Community policing > Texas.; police departments; foot patrols; bike patrols; community oriented policing; Texas metropolitan cities
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5309/

During the last 25 years in law enforcement in the United States, there has been a universal practice of foot and/or bicycle patrols used to accomplish the goal of police patrol enforcement and the philosophy of community policing in metropolitan areas. These tactics of patrol have also been used in police departments in and around the State of Texas. This report is a research project on six major metropolitan police departments in the State of Texas, analyzing their allocation of foot and/or bicycle patrol units within their urban cities. The study assesses their early history in using these two police tactics to address criminal activity and their progression from foot patrol to bicycle patrol. The findings of this research support the proposition that major Texas police departments have adopted the practices and philosophies of other major urban police departments around the US, by using foot and/or bicycle patrols in their cities. There is evidence that major Texas police departments were using foot patrol during the early 1980s in support of community policing and gradually phased out this practice in the early 1990s to adopt the new enforcement tactic of policing on a bicycle.