The Guilford Bike Patrol



If you ask Officer David DiTullio about his work as a Guilford Rail policeman, you will immediately hear about the newly created Bike Patrol, which is rapidly becoming an institution on the eastern end of the railroad. You will be encouraged by his enthusiasm over the success which he is experiencing in his encounters with all kinds of people whom he intercepts and interviews when they are on railroad property without authority (call it “trespassing”). You will quickly get the idea that the approach taken by this officer and his colleagues is positive and you may soon realize that the community-friendly method of educating the public may well pay off over time as people continually hear this most important safety message: “STAY AWAY FROM RAILROAD TRACKS”.
What about the Bike Patrol? Well, many municipal police departments have now put officers on bicycles to mingle among crowds of people, finding that the bike officer can move rapidly and quietly, with minimum traffic disruption, covering a sizeable territory with little cost and little fatigue. Officer DiTullio, an avid biker, convinced his commanders at Guilford that there was good justification to utilize a bike patrol even on the railroad. There was already more than enough concern about the grade crossing collisions and near misses, the trespassing and the occasional person struck by a train, and now the Boston to Portland passenger train was to become a reality, with train speeds most communities haven’t seen in decades. The ability of the Bike Patrol officer to reach deep into crowds and to be better able to communicate with young people, who seem to be able to identify easily with a biker as compared to an officer in a cruiser, had immediate appeal to Chief Lou DiGregorio as a fresh method of dealing with educating the public. Dave DiTullio made his personal bicycle available for the job and thus was born the Guilford Bike Patrol.

The initial patrolling effort has been concentrated at Old Orchard Beach, Maine and Durham, New Hampshire, where there is a long history of trespassing problems. At Old Orchard Beach, the summer brings a huge influx of tourists, who walk about enjoying the many attractions. The railroad track runs through a part of the community where pedestrian traffic is extremely heavy, day or night. The University of New Hampshire campus at Durham is alive with students and the nearby railroad track is all too accessible. Officer DiTullio has spent many hours at both locations, always accompanied by a partner - usually Jeff Landgren, who is also new to the department - who uses his cruiser to monitor Dave’s activities. Jeff also makes contact with the folks in the area, to challenge those who are trespassing and to educate all as to the hazards and penalties involved in trespassing. The brochure reproduced in these pages, “Operation SafeCross”, is a popular handout to back up the personal contact of the police.

The overall reaction of the public to the approach taken by these officers is almost always reasonable, especially with the advice concerning the pending operation of the high speed passenger train. But it is obvious that the effort must be continuous, for the railroad track almost always represents a shortcut. The successes of the Bike Patrol to date, seen in the acceptance of the safety message as well as the lack of resistance to the police presence, are encouraging and it is intended to expand the coverage of this technique to include other locations and situations. But the focus for now will remain on advertising the potential dangers to those who walk the tracks upon which the high speed passenger trains will soon run. And, of course, there is always the enforcement of the anti-trespassing laws to drive home the point.

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This page was last updated on Thursday, November 09, 2000 08:47:18 AM