Mangalore's biker police to nab traffic crooks

Youth in Mangalore now need to keep an eye out for cops before they perform stunts on their motorcycles. The city police, too, are equipped with mean machines, and they can perform the same stunts, perhaps a tad better.

The only difference, however, is that the policemen would not be performing the stunts to impress anyone. Instead, they would go for a wheelie or a bunny hop (launch the bike up into the air, as if jumping off a ramp), only to tail and nab traffic offenders.

The motorcycle cops started patrolling the roads on Thursday, after as many as 30 bikes were provided to 17 stations in the city a day ago.

“We have trained the men to perform at the peak of their efficiency, with clear instructions not to let even a single traffic offender to go free,” Mangalore police commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh said. Mangalore has a long list of habitual traffic offenders, who make life difficult for other road users.

A policeman, trained in ‘motorcycle policing’, said he could perform stunts that college students do, such as bunny hopping, which equipped him to ride over footpaths, to chase an offender in a traffic snarl.

The motorcycle cops have been deployed on high ways and traffic intersections, besides other areas frequented by traffic offenders.