Chicago's police superintendent on Friday morning said bicycles are beginning to be deployed to some officers already on foot patrols in high-crime areas.
It's an expansion of the department's "Operation Impact" strategy that was launched last year. The new effort, according to Supt. Garry McCarthy, is to allow officers patrol a larger area while remaining accessible to neighborhood residents.
"I had people coming up to me and say that they felt the positive presence of our officers in these high crime areas and they felt safer as a result. I know our commanders have had similar experiences as they are out in the community every day," he said.
Operation Impact was a strategy used by the New York City Police Department while McCarthy was an official there. It saturates high-crime areas with officers.
A third of the foot-patrol officers have already been training and equipped with the bikes, he said.
