NHPD Looks To Grow Bike Beats

by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent

Evolution barber shop’s Javier Sanchez: “This is perfect.”

Perry Flowers to Cohen: Great respect for your dad.

Officer Derek Cohen, Jr. pedaled east on Grand Avenue on a department-issued Cannondale Trail mountain bike when a driver heading west honked his car’s horn three times in quick succession to say hello.

“That’s my cousin,” who works an information-technology job at Fair Haven School, Cohen said with a smile. He and bike-patrol colleague Officer Eric Pesino waved in response as they continued their two-wheeled ride in the direction of the Quinnipiac River.

That passing, friendly moment of recognition was one of several to take place over the course of an hour early Wednesday afternoon as Cohen and Pesino biked around Fair Haven — as part of their police work.

Pesino, 36, helms the New Haven Police Department’s (NHPD) bicycle-certification program.

A 15-year NHPD vet currently assigned to the department’s traffic unit, Pesino teaches at least one week-long course each year for fellow city cops interested in learning how to pedal long distance (20 to 40 miles), bike up and down hills and even flights of stairs, dismount a bicycle in motion, and — most importantly — follow the bicycle rules of the road, like stopping at red lights and not biking on the sidewalk.

Cohen, 29, is one of 34 bike-certified NHPD officers currently assigned to patrol.

In an interview on Wednesday at the Blatchley Avenue police substation, Acting Police Chief David Zannelli and Fair Haven District Manager Sgt. Chris Alvarado said they’re hoping to build out the department’s bike-patrol program as part of the NHPD’s commitment to community policing.

The police car “is a natural barrier” for community members who want or need to speak with a cop, Alvarado said. He’s found that neighbors feel much more comfortable approaching an officer who is on a bicycle or on foot. Zannelli said he consistently hears from people across the city that they want to see more officers on the beat, visible and approachable, in their neighborhoods. He’s promised to bolster such community-policing efforts in his bid to become the city’s next permanent police chief.

Thus the renewed interest in bicycle beats.

Zannelli, a popular former Fair Haven district manager himself, said that the NHPD currently deploys three different bike-patrol units across the city each day, mostly — but not exclusively — in Fair Haven. He said he’d like to build the program up so that each of the city’s 10 policing districts has at least one bicycle or walking beat a day.

Alvarado said that the department plans to host two bike-certification courses in June. That should boost the number of bike-certified patrol officers in the city to around 60.

On Wednesday from around noon to 1 p.m., Cohen and Pesino took this reporter on a biking tour of sorts to show what a bicycle-patrol beat can look like.

They pedaled along Blatchley Avenue, Grand Avenue, Ferry Street, Exchange Street, Lloyd Street, Front Street, and East Pearl Street, among other busy neighborhood corridors and quiet residential streets.

They weren’t responding to any particular calls for help.

Instead, they were on the look out for “quality-of-life” concerns — like unwanted loitering outside of Grand and Ferry businesses — while also checking in with shop owners and passersby.

Over the course of the hour, a half-dozen different people waved or beeped hello, complimented their riding, and sometimes stopped them to chat and admire their rides.

Perry Flowers, a West Rock resident and former alder candidate, was one of those walkers to flag down Cohen and Pesino, at the corner of Grand and Blatchley.

Flowers said he was in the neighborhood trying to register people to vote in advance of this year’s gubernatorial election.

He also told Cohen how much respect he has for Cohen’s father, Derek Cohen, Sr., a retired former NHPD officer who also used to work a bicycle beat. (“He loved it,” Cohen, Jr. said about his dad’s experience on the job on two wheels. He said his dad spent so much time on a walking and biking beat downtown that he was fondly known as the “king of the Green.”)

Javier Sanchez, who runs the Evolution barber shop at 314 Grand Ave., also waved down the officers on Wednesday — not because he needed help, but just to thank them for being out and about in the neighborhood. “This is perfect,” Sanchez said. “We need more security.”

Farther up Grand, near the corner of Ferry Street, a man named Louis Santiago sat on an e-bike — and called Cohen over so he could take a look at the officer’s Cannondale.

Pesino said that one of the most frequent questions he gets asked about the NHPD’s bicycle-certification program is whether or not officers get to ride e-bikes. For now, Pesino said, the answer is no. That requires a different level of training.

Plus, the department just recently bought 15 new Cannondale Trail hardtail mountain bikes, from D’Aniello’s Amity Bicycles. Pesino — who grew up in Watertown as an avid BMX rider — said he likes the exercise of pedaling on a mountain bike, on the job and off.

Soon enough, the officers were back on their way, biking around the neighborhood. Before they left Ferry and Grand, a man on the sidewalk called out one more message of appreciation. “Nice bikes,” he said, “for real.”