From the archives: Motorcycle cops return to Long Beach

This story was originally published in Newsday on June 4, 2005

It happened in a split second, a veteran Long Beach police officer on motorcycle patrol avoiding two children on a bicycle. It had just begun to rain.

Sgt. Martin Bergen spun off his bike that day in the late 1960s. He was in a coma for three weeks and suffered a head injury that led to his departure from the police force on which his father also had served.

In the accident's wake, the Long Beach Police Department stored its motorcycles, and the unit disbanded in 1968.

Now, 37 years later, the department - in an effort to modernize its 71-member force - is resurrecting the special unit. Two of the department's patrol officers - Steven Gumiela and Jose Miguez - are training with the Nassau Highway Patrol Bureau and are expected to hit the busy streets of the beach community next month.

Among the most enthusiastic supporters of the unit's bittersweet rebirth are the late Bergen's family members. His son, now a Long Beach police officer himself, said that although he did not consider a move to the motorcycle unit, he and his family welcomed its return.

"It means a lot to me that it's coming back, and I think my father would have been happy," Sgt. Richard Bergen, 41, said. "It's positive for the police department and that's what we're concerned about."

The unit's primary responsibility will be traffic enforcement, but officers hope it will bring more visibility to the Long Beach police as it participates in parades, police funerals and other ceremonies.

"It's been a void for quite some time," Lt. Bruce Meyer said, adding that other police departments - Hempstead, Glen Cove, Freeport, to name a few - have had motorcycle units for years. "Patrol is the backbone of the department. They're another tool to use out on patrol."

The maneuverability of the motorcycles and their inconspicuousness compared with squad cars should go a long way toward effective traffic control and community policing, Gumiela and Miguez said.

"It's really going to help things on the boardwalk, the west end," said Gumiela, a 21-year veteran with the department. "It fits so well into Long Beach, there's no reason not to have it."

In addition, the officers said, the motorcycles serve as an icebreaker for residents - particularly young people - who lingered after a Memorial Day parade to talk to them about the bikes and ask questions.

The bikes Gumiela and Miguez will be riding are black-and-white, 700-pound Harley-Davidson police motorcycles donated by the Port Authority Police Department.

Downsides to the new job are few, said Gumiela, whose eyes brighten when he starts up his machine and hears it rumble. The biggest problem: "We're going to be spending a lot of money on sunscreen."