PIEDMONT BIKE PATROL IS READY TO ROLL:

Piedmont Police Department implements its first official bike patrol to make Piedmont safer and more community oriented.

The Piedmont Police Department was awarded a community project grant from Coosa Valley RC&D Councils for $6,000.

This grant will finish fully establishing the Piedmont Police Bike Patrol by being able to purchase necessary equipment. The police department was able to purchase 3 Cannondale Trail Bikes and an Apollo E-Scooter to equip its bike unit from the grant award.

Chief Nathan Johnson states “The City of Piedmont houses approximately 20 miles of recreational bike trail along the Chief Ladiga Trail within our jurisdiction. We have many recreational events on the Chief Ladiga Trail and in town including charity 5k’s and bicycle races, in which the police need to be able to quickly and safely respond to anyone that needs assistance. I feel that it is important to the citizens and visitors of Piedmont to see the police presence in this capacity and with the help of Coosa Valley RC&D Councils we are now able to provide that service to our community.”

The overall goals of having a Police Bike Patrol in the City of Piedmont is to improve community relations, make bike trail events and downtown events safer for both citizens and patrol, provide safety and support to those who use the bike trail, provide service to those areas that cannot support a police vehicle, make officers much more approachable to the citizens, and to provide service to stranded cyclists.

Members of the City Administration and the citizens of Piedmont – have shown a lot of support for the Piedmont Police Bike Patrol project. Chief Johnson also said, “On behalf of the Piedmont Police Department and the City of Piedmont, thank you to the Coosa Valley RC&D Councils for your assistance in funding the project to make Piedmont a safer – and better –  community.”