Virginia State Police motorcycle unit hits the road

By: Nelson Staff | Nelson County Times
Published: July 15, 2009

Virginia State Police have deployed motorcycle officers to patrol Nelson, Albemarle and Greene counties, and they also will be on the U.S. 29 corridor in Amherst and Campbell counties and Lynchburg.

“There’s a lot of things a motorcycle can do that we can’t do with a car,” said the supervisor, Sgt. Greg Miller. “I’m already hearing a lot, they (motorists) notice it.

“We’re here for the public’s safety, ultimately, we’re here to protect people,” Miller said.

The three troopers began patrolling during the Fourth of July weekend after intensive training at the state police academy, said Deborah Cox, an agency spokeswoman.

“While the unit is small compared to other state police motorcycle teams in the state, we hope to expand in the future and eventually have a full-size unit consisting of eight members,” said state police Capt. Paul D. Kvasnicka Jr., commander of the Appomattox Division. That division includes Charlottesville and Nelson County.

This is the first motorcycle unit in the 75-year history of the Appomattox Division. The motorcycle officers will be based in Charlottesville.

They are riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles and all are equipped with laser radar devices, which enable the officers to accurately pinpoint speeders from thousands of feet away.

The officers will patrol wherever they are needed in the entire division, which extends from Greene County to the North Carolina border, Miller said.

The most common problems officers encounter are speeders and inattentive drivers.

“There’s a lot of distracting things these days, a lot of electronic devices, GPS, cell phones and radios,” Miller said. “One thing about motors is that we’re more elevated (than patrol cars), and we can see what’s going on inside a vehicle,” he said. “We can sit places where a (patrol car) can’t,” he said.

Plus, motorcycles can turn around more quickly to stop a speeding vehicle headed in the opposite direction, and they can maneuver better in heavy traffic.

State police have four other motorcycle units, in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Roanoke and Richmond.