Police in a province in southern Vietnam have recently taken up bicycle rides during patrols in a bid to be on friendly terms with local residents.

Approximately 50 police officers pedaling their bikes along rugged paths has been a common sight in Cao Lanh City, the heart of Dong Thap Province in the Mekong Delta, every morning since last month.

The bike-riding patrols are the city police’s bid to revive the affable image associated with local police officers decades ago.

After a routine meeting on a recent Monday, six police officers at the Ward 4 police station mounted six bikes and hit the roads.

Captain Nguyen Tan Hung, one of the officers, chose Ba Khia Canal to begin his duty tour. “The canal’s neighborhood is most plagued by social ills in our ward, with idle youngsters often messing around and getting involved in brawls. Regular patrols are thus necessary,” he explained.

Such bike-riding police officers are sometimes intimately teased by mischievous kids, and even adults.

During his patrol, a woman suddenly grabbed hold of Hung’s bike to inquire if her temporary residence dossier was being processed.

“We can easily make inquiries, voice our complaints or give feedback to the police officers when they are cycling by. We cannot do so if they speed off on their motorbikes,” Le Thi Tuyet, the woman, explained.

The idea of deploying bike-riding police officers was put forward by Colonel Tran Van Doan, chief of the city police department.

A seasoned police official, Doan remains impressed by the friendly, helpful administrative policemen of the 1980s. “These cops first walked and then switched to bicycling during their patrols. There was almost no detachment between the police and locals. Police officers were on patrol and asked after locals in order to build rapport and trust at the same time,” Colonel Doan revealed.

The current move is being embraced by most residents, but it also faces conflicting opinions, as some are concerned about how policemen mounted on bicycles can chase after robbers if they bump into them during patrols.

“They have good reason for such worries. In such cases, we local policemen will waste no time in overpowering robbers and can turn to locals for transport means to hunt down the fugitive criminals. We can also promptly inform criminal police to assist with the pursuit.”

“We’re set on bringing back the genial image of local policemen during the 1980s and are thus willing to surmount any hurdles that come our way,” he noted.

The ‘initiative’ has been applied in different wards in Cao Lanh City.

Police stations in eight urban wards within the city have now been ‘armed’ with bikes.

The latest to join the mounted police force is that of Ward 1.

Lieutenant Colonel Ta Phuong Kieu, chief of the Ward 1 Police Station, said she always cycles to local homes just as her juniors do.

“Our legs got fatigued at first, but I kept encouraging my staffers to make it a habit. In addition, bicycling is a healthy, environmentally-friendly practice which is immune to petrol price hikes,” she added.

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