by Michael Montalvo
Daily Lobo
The UNM Police Department unveiled two all-terrain vehicles
Saturday.
The vehicles should speed up officers' response times, said Sgt. Jimmie White of the UNM Police Department.
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"There have been incidents with bicycle thieves or other thieves in buildings where it has taken us a few minutes to get there, and the person has gotten away," he said. "Or we have gotten there and the person has had such a head start, and we could not catch them
on foot."
The ATVs are 2007 Honda Ranchers with 425cc engines.
Officers drove the vehicles for the first time at Saturday's football game against New Mexico State.
It cost $10,000 for the pair, but the department traded in two older vehicles and broke even, said Lt. Pat Davis, spokesman for the
department.
"It was an even swap for us," he said. "We got 10 grand for the two motorcycles we traded in and put that into the cost of these."
Officers used to patrol campus by bicycle or on foot, Davis said.
"Over half the campus is inaccessible by vehicle," he said. "These (ATVs) get our officers to places quicker than a bicycle and still present a professional image."
The ATVs' size and bright red color should give officers more of a presence on campus,
White said.
"People may or may not see a bicycle officer coming by, but if we're driving one of these by, they're going to take notice,"
he said.
The ATVs will also help with crowd control during large events, Davis said.
"For our special events,
especially on the South Campus, it's so hard for our guys to go back and forth on foot because we're covering such a large area," he said.
There are some areas around the stadiums where mountain bikes don't work well because of gravel and sand, he said.
The department will evaluate its officers' efficiency with the all-terrain vehicles before deciding to buy more, he said.
The ATVs can go almost anywhere, including up and down stairs, White said.
Not only are they practical for crime prevention, but they're also fun to ride, Davis said.
"It makes work on these things fun," he said. "Why not give the cops a cool tool that they can
work with?"
