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Bikers With Badges Up For Show

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By JERRY LOFSTROM, Tribune correspondent

Published: October 6, 2007

PLANT CITY - In the 1950s and '60s, the sight of leather clad bikers rumbling into town was enough to make people call the police.

At today's Plant City Bike Fest the rumble of motorcycles won't necessarily require a call to the police department - some bikers will have badges.

In a cone-filled municipal parking lot, the five members of the Plant City Police Department's elite motorcycle division will be on hand demonstrating a variety of skills to prove their prowess on two wheels.

Show times are at 6 p.m., 7 p.m., and 8 p.m. at the south municipal parking lot adjacent to the Union Station Welcome Center, 102 N. Palmer St. The Bike Fest, celebrating its fifth anniversary, is from 5 to 10 p.m.

The two-wheeled approach to fighting crime was established in 2001 by Police Chief Bill McDaniel and has proved to be an asset to the traffic division and the community.

Throughout the year, five Harley-Davidson motorcycles are Plant City's weapons for traffic stops, traffic control, escorts, public relations and getting through those nooks and crannies squad cars can't.

According to McDaniel, 'our personnel who serve on the motorcycle division have 80-100 hours of extensive training that include honing motorcycle-riding skills and traffic-collision investigations; they have meaningfully improved the response time to an accident scene that could save a life. In addition they have turned out to be a public relations gem because youngsters and others gravitate to the police officers on the bikes.'

Eight hundred pounds of steel and chrome equipped with a radio, siren and a police officer wearing high-top leather boots, gloves and designer sunglasses does tend to attract attention.

And let's be honest. A police officer on a Harley-Davidson just has more panache than an officer rolling through town in a marked police car.

Correspondent Jerry Lofstrom can be reached at jdlmcl@aol.com.

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