Unexpected benefit?

From the SF Chronicle website "Tired of pricey gas, police pump up bike patrols". It's an AP piece about how many jurisdictions are booting their bike patrols because they are hitting the limit of their budgets for fuel for the '07-08 fiscal year.

Living in Baltimore I can say that the only bike cops I see regularly are on patrol around the Johns Hopkins medical campus (hospital, med school, nursing school, public health school) and I don't know if they are there for city duty or private work. JH University pays off duty cops to boost its personal security force, and the bikers may be part of that. (On a side note, there are also a couple of Segway cops that patrol the same area).

I have seen articles about bike patrols at the Inner Harbor, but can't recall seeing the cops myself. I've felt for a long time that getting cops out of cars and back on the beat, either on foot or bike, making them people again instead of anonymous Officers in their cars will help some of the public relations issues. Maybe we'll have a chance to see.