The History of the Sunny Isles Police Department Motorcycle Unit
From the Harley-Davidson Publication “The Mounted Officer” Fall of 2005 Issue
Sunny Isles Beach has population of 19,000 and is located in Northwest Miami-Dade County between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway, just north of Haulover Park, South of excusive Golden Beach and east of Aventura.
Due to the increased traffic, Chief Fred Maas of Sunny Isles Beach, FL, leased six new 1450cc Harley-Davidson Road King motorcycles to form a Motorcycle Unit.
Specially outfitted for the police, these powerful, American made machines feature improved LED lights as opposed to the old strobe lights, sirens, radios, loud speakers, hand held laser speed guns and – a most important safety feature – ABS brakes.
The officers are very proud of the bikes when cruising down the streets with the sun over-head and the wind blowing in their faces.
Sunny Isles Beach and the surrounding communities are in the midst of a building boom with the roads getting busier all the time.
Last fall, Chief Maas increased the number of motorcycles on the road from two to four or five at any given time.
Instantaneously citations for speeding and other such offenses tripled.
“As a result of the increased citations we are noticing a 50 percent decrease in accidents,” Chief Maas said. There were typically 90 traffic accidents a month before the program began. That number has been slashed to the 40s.
Chief Maas stated the motorcycle unit’s number one enforcement tool is traffic enforcement.
Information and Photos provided by the Sunny Isles, FL Police Department.