Case study - Greater Manchester Police

Situation

Many police forces across the UK have pedal cycle patrol officers. The use of bicycles makes policing visible and bikes provide an ideal vehicle for use in city centre areas where speed of response and ease of access are a key to effective policing.

Until recently no formal cycle training of police officers took place in the UK and some accidents happened in a number of forces.

As a result Greater Manchester Police (GMP) approached BikeRight! to design, develop and deliver appropriate cycle training for their officers and PCSOs.

Our solution

We worked closely with GMP’s driver training and health and safety departments and devised a course that would train assessors to be able to deliver and National Standards Cycle Training within Greater Manchester Police.

The course incorporates national police procedures within the accredited National Standard for cycle training. We also produced a pedal cycle officers assessment manual that contains force-specific forms which can be tailored to any police force in the UK.

Benefits

• There is now a nationally recognised accredited cycle training programme delivered to all officers who use a bicycle in Greater Manchester

• Police officers can now patrol more effectively and with less risk to themselves and other road users

• Accidents involving police pedal cycle officers have decreased significantly due to the training

• To date 48 officers are now trained as cycle instructors and have subsequently trained over 250 colleagues

Related projects

• Cumbria Police cycle instructor training

• Devon and Cornwall Police cycle instructor training

• Cheshire Police cycle training

• Durham Police cycle instructor training

• Bicycle maintenance training courses