Have police officers on bikes cycled out of existence?

Whatever happened to cops on bikes?

A decade ago, police departments were spending money on bicycles, and the training for officers to ride them.

And those bikes weren't cheap. Villages spent as much at $2,000 for them, and more to outfit and train the police officers who would be riding them.

East Dundee had a bike patrol. So did West Dundee.

On the other hand, the once-rural community of Gilberts didn't and doesn't have plans to start one.

But with summer coming to an end and daylight becoming shorter, those officers or their bikes have seldom been seen.

"I don't know what happened to the bike patrol," said Terry Mee, East Dundee's police chief. "It's something I would like to look into starting again."

He also would have to look for officers who are willing to ride the bikes and go through the training.

"We don't use the bikes as much as we did, but they are not collecting dust," said Dave Sawyer, West Dundee police chief.

"We'll use them for festivals, where it is easier going through a crowd with a bike."

Besides Heritage Fest, which will be in September, West Dundee officers also used the bikes this month for the National Night Out event.

Bike patrols were heralded as another community outreach program, much like the cop walking the beat.

Racks were put on squad cars and during slow shifts, officers would take them off and ride them through residential streets.

They were another way to put officers in closer touch with the public.

"Also, they allow officers to quietly approach scenes where vandalism or burglaries are involved," Sawyer said.

In Kane County, the cycling patrols were a natural because a bike path runs through the length of it. That path is owned and patrolled by officers for the county's forest preserve commission.

West Dundee used them less frequently when the number of officers dropped.

Mee has been on the job less than a year. He's looking into the reason East Dundee officers haven't been riding bikes.

"Bike patrols are still useful. It's just a matter of having enough officers to ride them," Sawyer, the West Dundee police chief, said.