The Met Is Using Electric Motorcycles To Catch the Criminals Riding Them
- Paul Roberts
- 17 hours ago
- 2 min read
The Met has expanded its fleet of electric two-wheelers, showing that sometimes the best bike for catching a criminal is the same bike they’re trying to escape on.
London’s Metropolitan Police has increased its high-powered Sur-Ron fleet from five to 25, with officers using them to tackle phone snatching and other crimes involving electric two-wheelers.
To compare Sur-Ron specs side-by-side, visit BCB Bike Compare.
Fighting Electric With Electric
In London traffic, these bikes have some obvious advantages. They can accelerate hard from a standstill, slip through gaps and reach places where a conventional police car simply can't go.
According to the Met, officers have used them to pursue offenders through congested streets, onto pavements and through narrow routes inaccessible to larger vehicles.
And these aren't your typical pedal-assist e-bikes. The Sur-Ron machines being used by the Met can reach up to 50 mph (80 km/h), putting them much closer to lightweight electric motorcycles than the bikes most people picture when they hear “e-bike”.
The Met is seizing thousands of illegal and modified electric two-wheelers while simultaneously putting high-powered electric bikes into police service. The difference, of course, is who's riding them, what they're doing with them and whether the bikes are legal.
This isn't just a London problem. Police forces around the world are having to deal with increasingly capable electric two-wheelers, from illegally modified e-bikes to machines that are effectively lightweight electric motorcycles. Some are responding with conventional police bikes, while others are turning to electric machines of their own.
Turns out, the same things that make these bikes useful for getting away also make them useful for giving chase.
The BCB Take
Put simply, this is a pretty good example of where an electric motorcycle earns its keep. The Met isn't using these bikes because they're electric. It's using them because they're bloody useful in a city.
They don't need a fancy dashboard or a revolutionary battery. They need something that gets off the line quickly, squeezes through tight spaces and can stay with a suspect. That's exactly where electric two-wheelers can shine.
London may be the example, but the question is global. As high-powered electric two-wheelers become more common in cities, police forces are likely to discover the same advantages and use them to catch the people exploiting them.
And if the police are buying the same kind of bikes criminals are using to escape them, that's a pretty strong real-world endorsement of what these machines can do in a city.
Ride safe, folks.
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