Gearing up for the summer, Richmond Heights Police Department has gained approval from city council to purchase four new Police-Ready Mountain Bikes. The four bikes will cost residents $10,499.96 and will come from the Boys Town Nebraska-based manufacturer Volcanic Bikes by the end of April with off icers expected to be in the field by the summer, according to the city. The new bikes will be added to the city’s existing fleet of bicycles that, Police Chief Calvin Williams, said are starting to show their age and will be kept and used for training purposes. “The bikes that we are getting come completely outfitted, they have, basically, the saddlebags on it to carry equipment, they have the police decals and emblems on it as well as the red and blue lights on the front and back and a siren for the price that we are buying the bikes for,” Williams told council during an April 8 Council meeting. “The only additional costs are the uniforms for the officers riding the bikes.” Addressing council, Williams, who worked as Cleveland’s police chief during the 2016 Republican National Convention, said that he purchased 300 bicycles during that time and that they were used in part to form mobile barriers to the public, then later on, as public relations tools. “We utilized them every single day, all day, for the convention,” Williams said. “Towards the end of the convention it kind of became a public relations tool. People like to see squads of 40 to 50 officers riding up and down the streets of the convention when things really calmed down. “It’s a good PR tool, it’s a good tool to get us closer to our community, to the public- there’s no divider like with a car, and the steel and glass and all that. You are right out, and I think it’s perfect for our 4.4 square miles in the city…” ...read more read less