Do any of you use ATVs on patrol?

If so, what type of training does your department require and what type of warning lights do you have on them?

My department recently purchased two Honda Foreman ES 500s for patrol work in some of our rural locations.  The chief dumped them on me and told me to outfit them and devise a training  program.  

Any help would be much appreciated.

Quoted: Do any of you use ATVs on patrol? If so, what type of training does your department require and what type of warning lights do you have on them? My department recently purchased two Honda Foreman ES 500s for patrol work in some of our rural locations.  The chief dumped them on me and told me to outfit them and devise a training  program.   Any help would be much appreciated.

We use them on patrol for special occasions like park security in the summer or bring them out due to a situation. We have used them when a suspect has gone into a marsh or woods, a plane crash away from a roadway, etc. We do not have any equipment on them such as light/siren since we aren't going to do any road chases with them but POLICE is on the side as the only markings. A winch is nice to have on the front. We do not ride them reguarly on patrol as a patrol unit. Honda has schools for ATV and there are police/ATV schools around.

Quoted: Quoted: Do any of you use ATVs on patrol? If so, what type of training does your department require and what type of warning lights do you have on them? My department recently purchased two Honda Foreman ES 500s for patrol work in some of our rural locations.  The chief dumped them on me and told me to outfit them and devise a training  program.   Any help would be much appreciated. We use them on patrol for special occasions like park security in the summer or bring them out due to a situation. We have used them when a suspect has gone into a marsh or woods, a plane crash away from a roadway, etc. We do not have any equipment on them such as light/siren since we aren't going to do any road chases with them but POLICE is on the side as the only markings. A winch is nice to have on the front. We do not ride them reguarly on patrol as a patrol unit. Honda has schools for ATV and there are police/ATV schools around.

My brother left our forest unit last year, where he rode an ATV probably close to half of his work week.  Unfortunately, there was no training program at all, short of not wrecking the damn thing.

He wound up wiring up his own flashing blue lights he located and made them work, a necessity since he often chased other ATVers riding on restricted forest property.  

Oh yeah, a winch is VERY IMPORTANT.

Find someone from Alaska.  I know they use them.

I know some wardens that use them, and they have a push guard on them and they have two blue lights on that.  And I think the brake lights and lights might have wig-wags but I am not 100% sure on that.

I think ATV patrol would be a lot of fun.

Got some winches and bolted 'em on, snagged some led dash blasters from a wrecked unit and rigged them on the front rear decks.  Thought about wigwags but not too keen on drilling out the light wells of the chief's new toys.

Talked to a local sheriff's office search and rescue guy who uses ATVs for rescue work about training programs and he said don't let the asshats drive 'em.  Have
+1 on ATV patrol being fun.

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries uses them, probably many other game warden departments do too. See if they have any kind of training program for ATV's. Also, contact the border patrol academy, I'm sure they've got some sort of training curriculum.

Good luck!




PS - this thread is worthless without pics!