This year’s Boston Police Academy graduates will be riding police bicycles—complete with flashing lights and sirens—provided by South Street’s Ferris Wheels Bike Shop.
The store was crammed with some of the 65 Fuji Police Special bikes this week as owner Jeffrey Ferris made U-Haul truck deliveries to the Hyde Park academy.
After winning a competitive bid, beating out suppliers from as far as Missouri, Ferris Wheels received all the police cadet’s names and heights, so they could customize the bikes to personal specifications.
“It’s a cross between a heavy-duty mountain bike and a street bike,” Ferris said, showing off one of the solid black bikes during a Gazette visit on May 25. Features on the $1,650 police include disc brakes, a shock-absorber seat, and the lighting rig and equipment storage pack.
It is unclear whether the new officers, who graduate in June, will use the bikes as standard patrol equipment. The Boston Police Department did not have immediate comment.
Ferris Wheels won a similar police-bike supply bid a few years ago.