Bakersfield Police host motor competition at the Park at River Walk
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Officers from across the state went to head-to-head showing off their skills at the first BPD Motorcycle Skills Competition at the Park at River Walk Saturday.
The real winners aren’t the ones with the best times, they’re the ones who keep getting back up.
27 of California’s finest are taking the rubber to the road at the first ever BPD Motorcycle Skills Competition and it’s not for the faint of heart.
Officers from San Francisco, San Jose, Daly City, and Beverly Hills PD join CHP and BPD officers in taking on the obstacle course made up of hundreds of cones. The purpose is to get better at lowering the amount of fatal crashes.
“Every officer’s out every other week working in patterns like this plus, accident avoidance. It’s just a tremendous amount of training and ongoing training because driving a motorcycle is a perishable skill,” said Sgt. Rex Davenport with the Bakersfield Police Department. “If you’re not training and going through this, it’s gone.”
Sgt. Rex Davenport served the BPD as a motorcycle officer for three years. He says the officers go through 2 weeks of extensive training, including 40 hour work weeks on the back of a bike.
“It’s extremely hard,” said Officer Nicole Madsen. “These bikes are like 900 pounds and it takes a lot of patience, skills, and multitasking to get these bikes around this course.”
Officer Nicole Madsen has been in the BPD Motorcycle unit for just 6 months, but she’s been riding for years.
Officer Kevin Perkins, a motorcyclist with the CHP, knows a thing or two about twists and turns on the back of a bike.
“I’m 53 years old and I’ve been doing this for a long time,” said Perkins.
He’s been riding for the CHP for 25 years and shares tips on the tough course. There are penalties for moving the cones, knocking the cones, putting feet on pavement and falling.
“Be as smooth as possible and take advantage of those tiny little straightaways to grab a little bit of speed,” said Perkins. “Carry as much speed as you can in the corners but, this course is very tight. It’s a slow course.”
The Police Motor Skills Competition was hosted in San Francisco during October 2023 and now the BPD hopes to make it an annual tradition here at home.
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