Page 37 - November 2017 Magazine

Three hours before game time, Chicago Police Bike Patrol Officers are rolling down Addison toward Wrigley Field.
A group of four officers eventually wind their way down Fremont to Waveland, rolling toward Murphy’s bar when one of the officers spots a tall man in the street carrying a “tall boy” can of beer. The officer’s stern look was enough for the man to head back into Murphy’s patio area and avoid any further hassle. Such is life for the Bike Detail based at the nearby 19th District.
Scott Flores, who has spent a year in the area after three in the 15th District, and 10-year veteran Norman Moore, know this terrain well. To say they relish the assignment might be an understatement for these two Cub-fan cops.
“Since I was a little kid being a huge, huge Cubs fan and now to be the police for the Cubs, see the players and the fans and the stadium every day, it’s like a dream come true,” Flores exclaimed.
Added Moore: “We definitely feed off of what the Cubs are doing. Every day we get to see them do well and so many people come out to support them, it really makes us enjoy patrolling and making sure everybody is having a good time and being safe.”
Working Wrigleyville anytime during the season is a different beast than most assignments. Moore and Flores point out how fans sometimes forget Wrigley is a ballpark located in a residential neighborhood.
“People think it’s an amusement park, which it is, but it’s a beer garden inside a neighborhood,” Flores ex- plained. “They’re in shock. When they’re walking around with beer or making noise, we’re telling them, ‘Hey, peo- ple live across the street from here, so keep it down.’”
Patrick Lambe, another member of the 19th District Bike Patrol, has been working Cubs games for 15 years, so he knew the detail of the weekend primarily focused on preventing open alcohol in the streets and keeping fans from urinating in the alleys after the game. But he shared that the key to the Wrigley patrol is enforcing the minor infractions.
“If you take care of the smaller issues down here, it re- ally prevents all of the bigger issues,” Lambe informed. “Drinking in the public way might seem very minor for some people who don’t really think it’s a big deal. But if you let that go, it always escalates into drunken fights. So if you keep an eye on the smaller issues out here, it seems to really pan out and take care of the bigger ones.
Still, little can compare to nights like Game 6 of the Na- tional League Championship Series when 300,000 people filled the area to celebrate the team’s first World Series in 71 years. So Moore and Flores had something special packed for the weekend’s high-profile assignment – mini “W” flags that, unfortunately, had to stay hidden until Sunday night. Apparently, it’s hard to put being a Cubs fan aside even on the job. d
Bike Patrol O cers Norman Moore (left) and Scott Flores y the W ags they carried with them in anticipation of a Cubs win.
Ticket to (bike) ride
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■
NOVEMBER 2016 37