Electric motorcycles are increasingly entering police fleets for patrol use, but now we could be seeing electric bicycles entering the mix as well, thanks to the new Delfast Top Cop e-bike.
Delfast Top Cop electric police bike
Delfast’s Top Cop electric bicycle is based on the company’s Top 2.0 high powered e-bikes.
The Top 2.0 is (believe it or not) a consumer-oriented 50 mph (80 km/h) electric bicycle. Though the “bicycle” part is questionable. Sure, it’s got pedals, but they are practically vestigial at this point.
The original Top featured a 3 kW motor, but the upgraded Top 2.0 has a new 5 kW motor.
Delfast even claims that the bike’s upgraded acceleration should be “able to compete with most regular cars on a quarter-mile distance.”
The Top Cop version of the bike also gets a battery large enough for 174 miles (280 km) of range, according to the company. I’m not sure bike cops travel that far during a patrol shift, but it means they should have plenty of juice in the tank for a number of quick pursuits.
And that long-range fits well with Delfast’s history of high capacity batteries. A few years ago the company broke the Guinness World Record for longest e-bike ride on a single charge without pedaling.
Delfast believes that its Top Cop electric bike could save police departments a considerable amount of money. Compared to electric motorcycles, the company estimates that its Top Cop e-bikes will cost around $2,000 less per year in terms of maintenance and operating costs, not to mention the lower purchase price.
Delfast is already in discussion with over 20 police departments regarding the Top Cop electric bikes, which they can customize with a number of tactical accessories. The standard load-out consists of a siren, police lights, cargo boxes, GPS tracking, motor locking and something they call “remote launch”, which I think means remote start, but which I hope is either an ejection seat or Tesla Summon-style self driving.
Testing is currently underway with police departments in the Northeastern US, and Delfast hopes to begin testing with police departments on the west coast soon.
Electrek’s Take
They say the cops have to be kitted out at least as good as the criminals, right?
So if there are dudes on consumer-facing Top 2.0’s zipping around at 50 mph, shouldn’t the cops have their own 50 mph e-bikes to catch them?
In all serious though, I can see this as a pretty good deal. Not only will they save a lot of money over electric motorcycles, but cops on these high power e-bikes can actually go places that motorcycles can’t. And for city use, 50 mph is likely fast enough. Most traffic violations don’t end in high-speed pursuits, and so an e-bike is perfectly capable of pulling over cars that run red lights, roll through stop signs or make illegal U-turns. I’d say this e-bike could accomplish much of what a normal traffic cop’s daily routine requires.
The downside is that they won’t be able to pull over speeding Teslas on the highway like cops on Zero electric motorcycles can, but the advantages for lower intensity police contacts could make up for that. There will still need to be cops on cars and motorcycles, but high powered e-bikes could provide some excellent utility for many in-between scenarios that pop up daily.
What do you think about seeing more cops on e-bikes like these? Let us know in the comments below!
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