PORTSMOUTH – When asked how much her motorcycle weighed, Portsmouth Police Officer Maddie Pirri smiled and replied "a lot."
The Harley-Davidson Electra Glide certainly doesn't look light or flimsy, especially outfitted with emergency lights and storage cubes for Pirri's paperwork. But Pirri, who stands 5-feet-5-inches tall, wielded the bulky bike with confidence and skill as she cruised in from East Main Road and parked in front of the Portsmouth Police Department on Sunday morning.
Pirri believes she's currently the only female police officer in the state to work a police department's motorcycle unit.
Thomas Lee, former chief of the Portsmouth Police Department, announced the establishment of the department's motorcycle unit shortly before his retirement earlier this month. The Middletown Police Department and Newport Police Department have motorcycle units.
Pirri and Detective Jacob Silva currently make up the unit, but Lt. Mark Mooney — who heads the department's motorcycle division — will be bike-bound by September, and he predicts at least one more officer will join the ranks within the year. Pirri and Silva were chosen to lead the charge because they already had their motorcycle licenses and they expressed interest, Mooney said.
Pirri — daughter of Laura Byam of Middletown and Matt Pirri of Bristol — is the first in her family to become a police officer, though her younger brother, Aidan Asher, 20, plans to follow her lead, she said. Pirri is from Bristol originally and currently resides there. Her wife is Christina Pirri and she has a 6-month-old son, Landon.
The 31-year-old Pirri has been a member of the Portsmouth Police Department for eight years. Her duties in the summer include patrol functions and traffic enforcement, she said. Pirri was the school resource officer (SRO) at Portsmouth High School from 2016 to 2018 and spent the last school year at Portsmouth Middle School, Hathaway and Melville Elementary schools. "SRO duties involve criminal activity within the school and engaging with the faculty and students by giving presentations, going outside for recess, visiting students during lunch etc.," she explained in an email.
A family friend who worked as a state trooper turned Pirri on to the idea of policing; even as a kid, she felt the urge to want to help people and be a role model.
Patrolling on a motorcycle is sure to help Pirri further ingrain herself into the community and strengthen residential bonds. Motorcycle units are considered "community based units" that allow officers to interact with residents more easily, according to a press release from the Portsmouth Police Department. The state doesn't require police departments to use motorcycle units.
"She's great at community policing," Mooney said. "This will just enhance her community policing aspect, being on the bike."
"We can get out there, we can engage the public," Pirri said. She engages "a lot with the community," especially with the younger population in her role as a school resource officer, she said. "It's really good for them [children] to see a female" represent the department in the motorcycle division. Then, "females know they can do it," Pirri said.
Plus, she said,"kids love it."
Pirri already had her motorcycle license, but to qualify for the department's motorcycle division she had to undergo a one-week 40-hour training course in Hampton, New Hampshire, sponsored by New England Police Vehicle Leasing to learn such skills as stopping quickly after traveling at a high speed and riding slowly, which is essential for a parade detail or funeral procession.
The maneuvers were challenging and the training was "probably the hardest training I've been through," Pirri said.
Of her four days "on" in her work rotation, Pirri said she'll take the bike out for three of those days for about half of each shift. She can enforce traffic regulations while on duty on her bike, but she can't transport arrested people. The department's policy is to have multiple (usually two) officers on scene for arrests to ensure officer safety. "It doesn't always happen that way of course, if we respond to an emergency call for service and need to detain a suspect, we will do it immediately and wait for our back up to arrive shortly after. But on car stops that lead to arrests, we wait for back up for safety reasons...we always have more than one officer on scene when making an arrest, and a cruiser has to be used to transport prisoners."
After speaking with The Daily News, Pirri hopped on her motorcycle. She flipped on the bike's blue flashing lights as she hit the road. She had a local parade to escort,
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