Fort Lauderdale Police Department Motor Unit Celebrates a Century
SUBMITTED BY SERGEANT
GLEN E. GAVIC
From left: Ofc. Donald Solinger, Ofc. Jeffrey Beauregard, Ofc. Jeffrey Newman, Ofc. Juan Figone, Sgt. Glenn Gavic, Ofc Sebastian Uebrig, Ofc. Arthur Jennings, Ofc. James Ramage, Ofc. Scott Fry.
traffi c enforcement to include patrol of high crime areas as identifi ed by crime analysis. The Motorcycle Offi cers are also used for numerous escorts, parades, static displays, demonstrations, civic/homeowner association events, school career days, and D.A.R.E. graduations. The unit is utilized to lead the many running events along with the yearly Fort Lauderdale marathon and half marathon. Over the years the unit has been instrumental with facilitating traffi c fl ow for over 2 million visitors to the beach during the Fort Lauderdale Air and Sea show. The unit also participates in traffi c safety events with neighboring agencies in the tri-county area. Over the last quarter century the FLPD Motor Unit
T
he City of Fort Lauderdale celebrates its 100th birthday this year and its Police Department has been mobile on motorcycles nearly the entire time. The Fort Lauderdale Police Departments Motorcycle Unit is currently comprised of a total of 9 riders including 1 supervisor. In the mid 90’s the unit was increased from 15 to a high of 27 at one point.
FLPD Motor Unit regular duties have shifted from strictly has been exclusively riding Harley-Davidson® Motorcycles
for police duty. Currently they ride 2010 Harley-Davidson® Electra Glide®
motorcycles, in a cost savings effort the city
purchased these motorcycles last year moving away from the usual 2 year lease cycle. In the early 80’s the motorcycle units supervisors and
instructors began to take note of offi cer safety correlating injury causing crashes and mishaps to the lack of serious in service training. New motor offi cers will undergo a two week motor school followed by 4 to 8 weeks of riding and evaluation with an experienced motor offi cer trainer. All motor offi cers must attend monthly in-service training. With the growth of the South Florida area population there was a sharp increase in traffi c and congestion. In addition Fort Lauderdale is a tourist destination and one can regularly fi nd drivers from all over the world here on our streets. This condition created a greater need for continuous ongoing skills and accident avoidance training which is more important now than ever. With these training standards in place we hope to continue seeing motor offi cer accidents, injuries and its costs involved continue to diminish.