Ok--so it's not a cop on the streets of Atlanta; use yourn imagination.
Posted on 04/23/2002 1:57:39 PM PDT by Pharmboy
ATLANTA (AP) - Purse-snatchers beware: Atlanta police are riding shiny new $9,000 scooters - and it will take at least a brisk jog to get away from them. The city's finest unveiled a battalion of Segway Human Transporter vehicles Tuesday. The battery-powered, two-wheeled scooters can top out at 15 mph.
Inventor Dean Kamen introduced the gyroscope-stablized scooters last fall after keeping them secret for months under the code names IT and Ginger.
Police in Atlanta - a traffic-snarled city that never met a motor vehicle it didn't like - are borrowing six of the scooters from Kamen's company for a two-month test run.
The department wants to know whether scooter patrols will be more effective than foot or bicycle patrols, and also hopes to use the machines to boost police visibility.
A few officers showed off their new two-wheeled toys in a demonstration for the TV cameras.
"It's much easier to ride this than walk," Officer Jennings Kilgore said.
The scooter detects tiny shifts in body weight, rolling forward or backward depending on which way its user leans. Its gyroscopes make it difficult to fall from or to topple.
The police will use them in patrols at Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport and in the downtown business district. The debt-ridden department has not committed itself to buying any of the machines.
"Don't even ask me about the money," Maj. John Woodard said.
Atlanta is the first city to give the scooters a broad tryout, according to Segway officials. Georgia Power Co. and the city planning commission bought two each, and tourism officers who walk around downtown will share six.
How the scooters will hold up on the unforgiving streets of Atlanta, where tooth-jarring potholes sometimes go unfilled for months, remains to be seen. Police were put through an obstacle course as part of their Segway training.
"It just went right through everything," Kilgore said. "It'll go about as fast as the normal person can run. It's a pretty good clip."
The police say they think the Segways would help them catch all but the fastest criminals. A special turbo key can send the Segway zooming off at 15 mph - the normal top speed is 12 - while the fastest humans can top 20 mph, though only for a short distance.
If anything, Woodard said, the Segway scooters are more agile and stable than bikes, if considerably slower in hot pursuit.
"I don't think anything is perfect in those situations," he said. "We won't know till we get involved in some real pursuits."
I bet. Of course, it'd be easier still to just stay home, wouldn't it?
...as he scooted off to the nearest donut shop.
Everytime a cop/malfeasor chase happens, the local Atlanta TV stations interrupt to follow it from helicopters. It will be entertaining to see the Segways following a white Bronco, all at 12 mph.
I love the way that Atlanta cut its crime statistics. It moved some of its precinct headquarters out of the city. The crime was still in the city, but because the precinct headquarters was outside the city, the statistics didn't count against Atlanta.
Ok--so it's not a cop on the streets of Atlanta; use yourn imagination.
Hey!
Did Segway forget about this item from last year?
[December 7, 2001] Police departments in Boston and Manchester, N.H., will be the first law enforcement agencies to test the battery-powered, two-wheeled, gyroscope-equipped scooters, called "human transporters," that were unveiled this week by Segway LLC, the closely held manufacturer based in Manchester.
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