Trail Cops Community College Students Patrol Centennial Trail For Crime, Safety

Law enforcement officials are hoping that some extra eyes and ears on the Centennial Trail will help thwart a continuing crime problem.

Four students enrolled in the justice program at Spokane Community College began regular bicycle patrols this month along the trail between Boulder Beach and the Idaho state line.

The students, working two at a time, ride a 15-mile stretch of the trail that is notorious for car burglaries and vandalism. They enforce trail rules, assist with medical problems, greet other trailgoers and keep an eye out for crime.

Valley resident Pam Holleran is one of the four SCC students who ride patrol along the trail as part of the college’s cooperative education program with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department. Holleran and her partners — Karen Hahn, Debra Looper and Angelle Warden — also perform other basic law enforcement tasks around the Valley.

Holleran enjoys the work. #It’s like going on a bike ride,” she said. “It’s just letting (the public) know we’re out there.”

Being seen along the trail and around the parking lots can be an effective weapon against crime.

“Visibility is such a big deterrent,” said Charlie Korb, head ranger for the State Parks Department, which works jointly with the Sheriff’s Department to provide law enforcement along the trail.

Despite the combined efforts of the State Parks Department and the Sheriff’s Department, two law enforcement agencies, crime continues to be a problem along the trail.

Sheriff’s deputies say cars in parking lots are quick and easy targets with a high potential profit. Criminals know the owners will be gone for a couple of hours, and the lots frequently are not patroled.

Trailhead parking areas at Sullivan and near Walk in the Wild Zoo recorded the highest number of car burglaries in the Valley.

Purses, wallets, cameras, tools and clothing are items most frequently coveted by thieves, although backpacks, a compact disc player and a Los Angeles Police Department badge have been swiped as well.

“It varies from day to day, week to week,” Sgt. Gary Smith, who heads the Sheriff’s Department property crime unit, said of the missing items.

“Bottom line, we can’t be everywhere,” Korb added.

Which is why Korb and the State Parks Department, which loaned the bikes and a pick-up truck to the program, welcomed the help.

Vandalism is also among the growing crime trouble along the trail. Skylights were smashed in both the men’s and women’s bathrooms near Donkey Islands this summer, with the last attack coming in mid-August.

Replacing the skylights cost the county Parks Department about $1,200.

“It’s a senseless waste of taxpayer dollars and parks department time and effort,” said Wyn Birkenthal, county parks and recreation manager.

Besides patrolling the trail, Holleran and her partners patrol shopping center parking lots, mark abandon vehicles with the time and date they were abandoned and take found bikes to the Sheriff’s Department property room where they may be claimed by their owners, said Sheriff’s Lt. Danny O’Dell.

“They should be able to go out there and ride their bikes, or ride around in their truck and keep an eye on things,” O’Dell said.

As grey skies, rainy weather and icy winds increasingly become the norm this fall, the students will spend more time in the pickup and will do more paper work than people work.

The Sheriff’s Department pays up to $800 per quarter toward their tuition at the college. In exchange, the students work at least 16 hours a week for the Sheriff’s Department. The women will also receive one credit for every 33 hours of work they do.

“It’s a great educational opportunity for students,” Holleran said.

And the students see the work as a service to the community.

“We’re taking a lot of weight off the Sheriff’s Department, thereby freeing them for the more important calls,” Hahn said. “A stolen bicycle to the owner is important, but a rapist running around is more important (to the community). This way, they’re still telling the public their call is important.”

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