in one week as you know I've had four officers on duty using bicycles for Crime Control struck by drunk drivers for in one week I think it illustrates conclusively the danger is our officers face every day not just from armed criminals with whom we've had some experience this year but also with the drunken and the foolish behind the wheels of a car who to an officer on a bicycle are every bit as dangerous as any armed felon now Tom Tom boselli here just a year ago while on patrol was himself hit by a driver who was fleeing from a traffic stop an officer was trying to stop the car car fled and hid the bicycle and injure the foot of officer Roselli he'll speak a little while in a little while about his experiences and he is in fact the partner of officer pal maniac I see the officer in about ten hagen we had a conversation today about bicycle safety all of our bicycles come with standard light packages from the manufacturers of red and blue lights but the course of this conversation it came to my attention that the pole haven't fall up pull up elma diac had well he had done this in his basement of his own tools he put together a primo light package for his bicycle that's been assigned to him and having seen it demonstrated by him I asked my staff if we could replicate his commercially and so I've directed them we've identified funding about ten thousand dollars that we can outfit a similarly similarly high visibility light pack on all of our bicycles to enhance the light package that with the standard standard equipment obviously you know we can only do so much being on a bicycle is inherently vulnerable it's a terrific crime-fighting tool we debriefed numerous suspects who basically told us of all the bicycle of all the police patrols that they hate they hate the bicycle patrols the most they're stealthy they're fast they show up unexpectedly and they made a number of significant arrests in the last year we've doubled the number of bicycle patrol officers in the course of my in the course of my tenure here and we now have 87 officers on bicycle patrol it's great crime fighting tool it's a great community relations tool but it is a tool that is used not without risk to the brave officers who volunteer for this duty then what I'm going to do now is a officer officer Ezeli is going to step forward and say a few words about his experience last year they took a little bit about last night but obviously is it's a pending prosecution he can't go into a great detail my name is Tom Ezeli I'm a deep patrol officer for district 3 in the avenues west area I've been on bicycle patrol for a little over three years I've been partners with the Alton hinkin my entire bicycle career here we've been on numerous incidents very good arrests and also some scary situations such as last night so the department gives us very very good training which we try to utilize to the best as we can but the on some occasions no matter what kind of training you have you have incidents like this i received numerous inquiries from family friends citizens on al's condition and based on the incident yesterday and what I saw I'm very very thankful that he's doing well he's a little banged up but nothing broken and he should be back sometime next week here so he's at home resting and we all wish him well thanks a lot okay yeah I've got the pole hell mini hack here he's the home handyman here who you should see his car he's going to talk a little bit about how he came up with the idea and what he did to create this package well thank you I've been at district 1 got on the bikes for also about three and a half years or so I was able to come up with this idea because back in high school I took electronics and it's always been something for for me to take her with a little bit and just being it out on the streets down at district one there's always a lot of cars a lot of traffic nobody sees you so I figured you know it's it's nice to have something that's a little bright where cars can see ya if I'm stuck out in the middle of the street where I'm either fighting with somebody or my partner's fighting with somebody I can turn the lights on and have a little bit more coverage with the lights on the bike for us I've been doing some more research on some lights and I've been able to find some lights that will be a little bit more effective writer and a lot smaller as well too so I've been working on that as well so like I said it's I've had it where I've been on a scene officers have told me the only reason why I saw you was cuz the lights were on the bike so I that makes me feel good knowing that hey I got my back there and it's going to be there for me what I need thank you all right before we take a couple of questions I do have I do have a captain Kalyan here he has been the commander of district 2 as you probably know he'll soon be assuming the duties the neighbor task force and he'll be responsible for the bicycle patrols he rides the bike when he was a district 2 commander I've seen him out there leading from the front many times although his officers making my long pants but an Erica you could say a few words about the training is he's taking it himself good afternoon uh my name's captain Donald le learning GA ji Li morning Oliver officers that are training to buy a new bicycle to ride a bicycle spas are trained in the pit most standards of a bicycle training it's a 32-hour course that all of the officers go through it's a very intense cars it's very challenging I did it because of my district had more bicycle officers than anybody at the time so I felt those be right for me to learn what they're actually going through what they're experiencing it it's a very challenging course it's a very good core so it gets the office was prepared for most anything they can come across on the street how to get on our way on how to approach people but obviously what it does it was like the chief said it's very very vulnerable to knucklehead drunk drivers and people are not paying attention so they have great training but sometimes it's a dangerous job out there especially with the bicycles have nothing around you with the bike under ESO the training is very good and we're going to be recert on where we do updated training every year for me keep them sharp on their skills and their riding