Articles/MotorcycleCops

From the NYPD, written by Detective Mark Warren

Organized under the "Office of Street Traffic Regulation Bureau," the "Motor-cycle Squad" was founded by Police Commissioner Waldo Rhinelander on June 9, 1911, only 17 days after he took office. First attached to the Traffic Squad, the formation of the Motorcycle Squad was the result of the increasing difficulty members of the Bicycle Squad were having apprehending speeders.

The "old" Bicycle Squad (which had the nickname of the "Scorcher Squad") had been founded in 1895 by then Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt to catch the speeders of the day namely, cyclists and carriage drivers. By 1911, however, automobiles were becoming increasingly common, and the new-fangled vehicles were simply too powerful and too fast for the pedal pushing cops to be effective, even with a citywide speed limit of only eight miles per hour. Apparently the idea of catching motorized cars with motorized bikes paid off, because between June 9 and December 31, 1911, motorcycle cops wrote 3,710 summonses. The average fine for a traffic violation in 1911 was about $5. However, everything is relative -- the salary of a new NYPD patrolman at the time was just $800 a year.

In 1912, the NYPD spent $1,000 on red "Indian" motorcycles, supplementing the $2,940 already spent in 1910 and 1911. There were now 25 motorized two-wheelers scattered throughout various precincts, along with two more in the storehouse, as compared with only 55 bicycles in precincts and 23 in storage. Any bicycles, motorcycles, patrol wagons, carriages, or other vehicles that were deemed "unserviceable" were sold that year, and the repair of all vehicles including automobiles was transferred to the Police Department's "Division of Horses and Equipment."

The following year (1913) saw a dramatic increase in the effectiveness of the Motorcycle Squad in apprehending speeders. Motorcycles were fast and could easily maneuver between cars in heavy traffic, thus ensuring capture of the offender. With only 27 patrolmen and one sergeant assigned to the unit (as compared to the 66 members of the Bicycle Squad and 494 in the Mounted Unit), a total of 16,004 summonses were written in 1913, and the typical fine was now $10.

Speeding had become a real problem even in 1914, as the NYPD recorded 6,718 accidents involving motorized vehicles that year; in 1915 there would be 4,865 more accidents that would injure 4,830 persons and kill 179. With statistics as alarming as these, it is no surprise that members of the Traffic Division, including the Motorcycle Squad, took every possible opportunity to lecture students, children, and drivers about automobile safety.

By 1916 the NYPD had 260 motorcycles, 971 bicycles, and 343 horses in service, as compared to a total of only 66 touring cars, motor patrol wagons, and trucks. By the end of 1917 those numbers had increased to 276 motorcycles, 1,025 bicycles, 327 horses, and 86 cars, wagons, and trucks. Growing too big to remain a single command, the Motorcycle Division was divided into three squads in 1920, with Squad #1 covering Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, Squad #2 working in Brooklyn, and Squad #3 assigned to Queens.

The city's first "wireless" (that is, radio-equipped) motorcycle made its initial appearance at the "Silver Jubilee Parade" in 1923, held to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the consolidation of Greater New York as one city. Sitting in a sidecar fitted with a tall diamond shaped "clothesline" aerial mast, the recorder listened intently to headphones while the motorcycle operator handled the traffic. Another unusual twist in the unit's history came in 1929 when the Department purchased 21 armored motorcycles and sidecars with bulletproof windshields; six were used by the anti-gangster "Gunman's Squad." Then, in 1930, Squad #2 was changed to encompass Brooklyn and Staten Island, and in total the Motorcycle Bureau had grown to 315 officers, 289 motorcycles, 28 sidecars, and two sedans.

Other important developments include the redesignation of Squad #3 (Queens) in 1933 as the Grand Central Parkway Motorcycle Squad; the first certified speedometer testing machine for motorcycles and radio cars in 1953, as well as the department-wide adoption of chemical testing of intoxicated drivers with a device called the "Drunkometer" in November of that same year; the transition from red Indian motorcycles to Harley-Davidsons in 1955 after the Indian Motorcycle Company moved to England, and the change from a traditional red motorcycle to silver in 1957-1958.

Motorcycle instruction for police officers was held at the Police Department Motorcycle School located on Randalls Island beneath the Triborough Bridge. After that location closed in 1958, another school was opened in 1961 at Jacob Riis Park on the Rockaway peninsula in Queens. In 1972 the Motorcycle District merged with the Accident Investigation Squad (which included the Intoxicated Driver Testing Unit) to become Highway Patrol. The color of the motorcycles changed again the following year, this time from silver to the current blue and white, followed in 1977 by a newly created Highway Patrol patch. Indeed, the unit, the motorcycles, the city, everything except traffic has certainly changed quite a bit since 1911.