The Lyndale Neighborhood Association is having a Beer Bust fundraiser for its Bike Cops program next weekend (Saturday, July 19) at Champions Sports Bar and Grill.

Support the Lyndale Neighborhood Association Bike Cop Program. This program builds community and safety in the Lyndale Neighborhood. Come and meet your Bike Cops! We will serve unlimited beer from 2:00 to 4:00 pm for $10.

Beer Bust! $10 tickets can be picked up at the LNA office, 3537 Nicollet Ave S. or at the event. For more information, contact Mike and Shirley Montrose at 612- 822-2372.

MPLS Mirror tells the story of the Bike Cops program.

The neighborhood decided to change the community’s attitude towards the police by financing an innovative program, utilizing ‘bike cops’. In some ways, ‘bike cops’ isn’t innovative because instead of trying something that’s never been done before, it’s something that was done for years by ‘beat cops’ and abandoned in favor of patrol cars. The neighbors believed that the downside to patrol cars was the distancing of police from the citizens, especially youth that they pledged to protect and serve. The other downside was the distancing from the criminal element. Residents believed that police patrols, speeding past criminals going about their day-to-day criminal pursuits, distanced them from what was going on in the ‘house next door’.

LNA decided to earmark funds to pay off-duty officers to patrol the streets to bring them closer to both groups.

I’d be curious to hear how they measure their success. Clearly the program has a lot of support from residents and businesses.

One more thing…