This story is from September 5, 2016

Slice of past makes a comeback

Slice of past makes a comeback
When 70-year-old history enthusiast Vakula Varadarajan heard the tinkle of a cycle bell in West Mambalam recently, he did a double take to register the anachronism as a policeman pedalled past. The khaki shorts had been exchanged for trousers, the oil-wick lamp replaced by a panoply of reflectors, and the once easy grin was now a tired, sweaty grimace.
“Just for a moment, I went back in time.
But the sharp honks brought me back,“ said Varadarajan, chuckling. He recalls how in his younger days the tuttut-tut of the baton and the creak of chain used to break the stillness of the night. “We knew the man in khaki was doing the rounds to keep miscreants at bay,“ he said.
While policemen whizzing past in swanky SUVs or sports bikes are a familiar sight, senior citizens are seeing a slice of their past when they spot a policeman on a cycle. Over the past three years, the Chennai police have made at least two attempts to revive bicycle patrolling, but it found few takers among police personnel and the new cycles were dumped in most stations. A fresh effort is being made now with the police department buying 250 bicycles.
Residents have welcomed the move, with the youngsters displaying curiosity , and the elderly , nostalgia. “This has not only boosted our visibility in some pockets, but also effectively pre-empts anti-social activity as we get information beforehand from the sources we build on the ground,“ said S Manoharan, joint commissioner (east). Besides being visible, quick access to the site of trouble is an advantage for the patrol. It also helps police personnel know residents under their jurisdiction better.
Historians say cycles were first spotted on the roads of Madras in 1877 when Major Charles Bowen of Royal Engineers (one of the corps of the British Army) owned a Michaux bicycle, which was a velocipede, an early form of the two-wheeler. Few records exist on when bicycle patrolling started. “Foot patrol was more popular and probably the only form of patrol until the late 1930s,“ said Varadarajan. Even when bicycles made their entry into the force, most of them were bought by the policemen themselves. “Broadway was a big market for bicycles,“ he recalled. “ And the cycles came in handy for everything -from intelligence gathering to chasing burglars,“ he said, laughing at the now comical memory .
Although historians trace bicycle patrolling to the 1930s, retired policemen recall cycling until the late 1980s. “We did a combination of both - bicycle and foot patrolling. Bikes came in only after 1991 and was mostly reserved for the traffic police,“ said Aravindhan T, who retired as inspector from Pulianthope police station in 2010. “We were like the postmen in those days. We knew every household and their conflicts, including domestic issues“ he says. With the introduction of bikes in the force in the 1990s, bicycles were slowly phased out While most retired senior cops commended the move, some expressed apprehension saying the security of the man on p at ro l could be at stake as most miscreants are armed and are armed and are motorcycle-borne. “It is good for intelligence gathering and a great way for our policemen to work out but we don't live in the 1970s anymore. The man on the seat should now keep a lookout on not just criminals, but the traffic too,“ said a retired DGP.
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