John Anderson

Name: John Anderson

Age: 40

Occupation: Police Sergeant

Team: South Oxhey Community Policing Team. Hertfordshire Police

Best Result: Christmas Eve 1991. Arrested a Burglar, a Drink Driver and somebody for causing a Breach of the Peace in a church in one shift!

Biography

I started cycling to school when I was 11 in Inverness, regularly falling of my racer because I wanted to ride off road up hills in the days before mountain bikes were common place. I’ve been riding for fun ever since. Unfortunately you can hear the M25 from where I live now so the local cycling is not very exciting but does have its moments.

Police services need to get to places conventional methods cannot, with Lumicycle lights they can get to such places in the dark.

I joined Hertfordshire Police in 1989 and have done a variety of different roles as a PC and now Sergeant. When I started at Oxhey I immediately saw the Potential for Mountain bikes in the area which is basically a big housing estate surrounded by lots of open area’s. I had to raise the money for the bikes and equipment, which was done with support of local councils and businesses. Unfortunately I didn’t get enough to buy all the equipment I needed. I really wanted decent lights and contacted Lumicycle to find out if they were willing to help me out. Thankfully they were interested in getting on board and I want to thank them for the contribution they made.

The first evening one of my PC’s and I went out riding in the dark, we received an emergency call over the radio about an Arson in the middle of our estate. We were past by a response vehicle with blue lights and two tones blazing away. Using our knowledge of a cut through we split up and approached the fire from two different directions. Unfortunately we missed the offenders but arrived on the scene and were helping a resident put the fire out before the response car or the fire brigade arrived.