The History of the Beaverton Police Department Motorcycle Unit
The Beaverton Police Motor Unit has been around for 31 years now with the first motorcycle to hit the streets in 1978 with the Unit’s first Motor Officer, (now retired) Motor Officer Don Bailey. Bailey who was originally a Motor Officer in Baldwin Park California came to Beaverton in the mid 1970’s and started the program as the lone rider until 1979 when he was join by Motor Officer Tom Moore. Officer Moore only served in the motor unit for a short time before moving to Detectives and was replaced by Motor Officer Pete Lefebvre. Bailey and Lefebvre remained as Beaverton’s only motor officers riding 1978 and 1979 “CHiP’s” style Kawasaki KZP 1000’s until 1993 when the bikes were replaced with the 1993 Kawasaki KZP 1000’s fairing style motorcycle. In 1993 they were joined by Motor Officer Pete Dalton who had originally been trained on Motors’s by Bailey in 1985 for the Newberg, Oregon Police Department. Bailey remained on Motors in Beaverton from 1978 to 2000 when he retired. Since 1993 the unit has grown to 4 motors and was also augmented with a Traffic Motor Sergeant for a period of 6 in years from 1996 to 2002 making the number of motors 5 in the unit. Since the unit’s inception, they have seen 2 different phases of the Kawasaki Motorcycle come through and currently enjoy the Honda ST 1300 for police work. There have been a number of other Motor Officer’s go through the Beaverton over the years. Dalton is the last of the Original 4 motors that started the unit in Beaverton taking over the lead role of Instructor when Bailey retired.
Information and Photos provided by the Beaverton, OR Police Department.