A meeting of cycling emergency services personnel. A TENYAS paramedic and a North Yorks. police constable stop briefly in York city centre. Both community-oriented schemes have been phenomenal successes and have set the president for the rest of the country to follow.

The four Scott Boulder mountain bikes pass York Minster for press photographs.

Sergeant Nigel Tottie leads his team of three constables past York Minster.

The officers line up to show off their equipment.

Police Constables Dave Heaven and Lee Fickling pause for a moment at the historic Bootham Bar, one of the gates into the city of York.

A close up look at the warning equipment fitted to the bikes. These consist of a wide angle white light and a white spot light, two blue strobes and a siren.

A constable shows us his equipment. They have cycle specific uniforms which include a range of hi-viz jackets, boots, helmets, glasses and padded shorts!

The rear view of the bikes. The battery for the warning indicators is housed in the small yellow box on the back, along with a spare TETRA radio battery and, in the sergeant’s bike, a first aid kit. The large yellow cover (with all of the sponsors listed) hides an A4 sized document wallet for paperwork. Each bike also has a lock fitted.

Two officers use their white and blue lights and sirens to get through York quickly. Safety is paramount, so the team has been trained to cycle professionally by the local council’s cycle safety unit.

An Australian police officer joined York’s cycling police officers on 10 and 11 June 2003. He was touring the cycle police officers of the world, discussing best practice and sharing ideas. From left to right is Sgt. Nigel Tottie, Senior Constable Mick Shaw and PC Steve Harvey.

An exclusive first look at a North Yorkshire Police mountain bike. Five of these bikes will be used for patrolling Acomb. This is the first one to come back from the police workshops where the battenburg markings were added. This photograph is taken in the York Cycle Heaven workshops where the lights and sirens will be fitted.

This police cycle was used for four years with Hampshire police. It has two powerful white lights powered by a battery strapped to the bottom of the frame.

With police cycles being relatively new to the UK, there are no fixed standards and designs and equipment are continually being tried out. Here we see the same bike with a few alterations. It has had blue lights added to the front, a flashing red light at the back as well as more livery.

Attending a emergency cyclists training course are ambulance and police personnel from around the UK, including Tees, East and North Yorks Ambulance, London Ambulance, North Yorks Police, South Wales Police, Northumbria Police and Kansas Police Department (USA). The attendees are (from left to right) Gerard Morgan, Monte May (instructor), Kevin Rogerson, Ian McCloud, Ben Whiteway, Russ Harper, Steve Harvey, Sean Clarke, Claire Tinker and Mark Inman.

The police and ambulance cyclists listen in to the instructor’s instructions, while trying to keep warm on an icy winter’s afternoon.

As part of the training, the cyclists take it in turn to make emergency stops when Kansas police officer Monte May instructs them.

Getting more weight over the rear wheel can reduce the chance of skidding when braking, as demonstrated by this police officer.

All the way from Kansas in the United States to North Yorkshire is this minimally marked police mountain bike.

Over the days the course moves to different locations. Here the team is in a cordoned off multi-storey car park for maneuvering exercises.

An artistic look at a line of emergency cyclists practicing weaving between obstacles at speed.

A final look at the team receiving instructions on how to navigate the forest of police cones used.

York police’s community cycle unit expanded on 6 October 2003. Here are the officers at a training day, (from left to right) Sergeant Nigel Tottie, PC Helen Williams, PC Colin Sutherland, PC Ben Whiteway, PC Russ Harper, PC Steve James, Acting Sergeant Jo Smith, PC John Hebblethwaite and PC Steve Harvey.

Each officer is equipped with their own personal bike and cycle-specific police uniform. The bikes are all fitted with blue lights, white lights and a siren alongside a rack-top bag for equipment.

PC Helen Williams descends some steep concrete steps as part of the cycle control training.

The cycling police officers are trained to cycle down stairs so they can continue to follow suspects or attend an emergency scene sooner. This photograph shows PC Steve Harvey racing down steps as if it was a smooth slope.

The police officers of York’s Community Cycle Unit are joined by the 4 ambulance service emergency cyclists that they will work alongside in York and the surrounding areas.

Two of the cycle unit officers use their white lights, blue flashing lights and sirens to warm the public of their presence as they simulate an emergency response.

Watch a video of this vehicle in action!

North Yorkshire Police Sergeant Nigel Tottie is concentrating on carrying out slow-speed tight turns around road cones. This is part of a demonstration of advanced cycling skills around an obstacle course as part of a national emergency service cyclist’s seminar.

Another police officer mounts a see-saw at speed at another part of the course.

TENYAS paramedic Paul Brown carefully negotiates a pile of wooden pallets.