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Kelowna residents can expect to see a lot of police motorcycles on the streets next week. For the first time ever, the RCMP Motorcycle Basic Operators Course is being held in Kelowna.
This week the training is focused on the skills of handling the bikes on a closed course. Next week the training moves to the streets. Inspector Dale Somerville from Cranbrook is in charge. He says the training is difficult, the standards are high and not all of the candidates will make it through.
19 potential motorcycle police officers are in Kelowna for the training, each hoping to make the shift to two wheels. It's the first time this training has been done here. While most are RCMP members, a handful are from municipal forces like Abbotsford, Delta or Vancouver.
A skills course has been set up in a parking lot at UBCO.
Some of the most challenging skills involve tight maneuvers at slow speeds and there were lots of examples of members unable to keep their bikes upright during the drills.
"It's not easy," said Inspector Somerville. "We have to make sure that you can ride these motorcycles to the point where it's second nature."
The members all come here after having been checked out by instructors in their own part of the province with a recommendation that they have what it takes to pass, but still, some will not.
"There's going to be a law of averages," said Somerville. "From my experience, we're going to have at least two guys that just don't have the skill set yet."
And that's just to graduate from the skills stage that's tested in the parking lot. Others are expected to be disqualified once they move their training into traffic next week.
"Historically, lots of guys on that second week, even though they passed the skills course, they're not safe enough on the road for us to satisfy that they're keeping the public safe and themselves safe and we don't pass them," added Somerville.
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