Long Beach cops use Segway to nab thieves

We certainly can't say that we'd voluntarily place ourselves on a Segway in order to patrol Long Beach, but officer Jose Miguez managed to utilize the breakneck (ahem) speed available on the two-wheeled Personal Transporter to arrest a horrifically embarrassed 13-year old carjacker. Notably, the Segway was no match for the Mercedes-Benz's engine at first, but after the obviously unlicensed driver and his partners in crime leaped from the car just before it slammed into a utility pole, their worn legs were no match for the potent battery-powered engine. Sure, it doesn't sound like the most exciting police chase ever witnessed or anything, but it's not everyday you see a Segway extending the long arm of the law.

[Via Wired]

[darter9000 @ Jun 8th 2007 11:59PM]

basically... the segway has longer run time than human legs in a chase...
Walk Billy, Walk, the Segway can't outrun you, but it can outlast you!
Hope Law Enforcement are good at tracking...

[lyl545646 @ Jun 9th 2007 12:00AM]

... Grand Theft Segway ...

[lotech @ Jun 9th 2007 12:09AM]

Great - Nerd Cops - the criminal underworld is trembling in fear.

[lyl545646 @ Jun 9th 2007 12:25AM]

oh yeah, speaking of Grand Theft Auto (IV), don't know if Segway will make into the game or not, that will be awsome ...

[Morgan Percy @ Jun 9th 2007 12:41AM]

they better cut down on the donuts because this ain't helping.

[Marty @ Jun 11th 2007 1:38AM]

Well yeah, and according to you, what? they should park their cars. The utility is obvious as this proves. By the way when was the last time you rode one? Riding a Segway uses more energy than you armchair critics think. But why burden you with fact or logic?

[bhstar @ Jun 9th 2007 12:44AM]

hei

[mmiikey @ Jun 9th 2007 12:55AM]

carl winslow?

[dan @ Jun 9th 2007 12:57AM]

In jail, if anyone found out that you got caught by a couple of overweight guys on Segway, things cannot possibly go well for you.

[Alber1690 @ Jun 9th 2007 2:06AM]

Looks like a scene from some futuristic movie...

[Mikey @ Jun 9th 2007 2:12AM]

The theme from CHIPS is running through my head.

[Karim @ Jun 9th 2007 8:05AM]

Given the speed involved, I think the theme from Police Squad! would be more appropriate:

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=107647532&s=143441&i=107646462

[GhostDoggy @ Jun 9th 2007 6:47AM]

Here in the southeast, Simon, the owner of a lot of shopping malls, uses these things for their security patrols inside the malls. This has been something for the past 2-3 years. Its one thing to take a rent a cop seriously, but one on a Segway seems to cheapen even that rental image.

[Luke @ Jun 9th 2007 7:51AM]

The first and only thing that ran through my head when I saw the photo was Chico: "Loo-king goooood!"

[Carlton @ Jun 9th 2007 8:03AM]

At my alma mater, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), our campus police have been riding around on these things for, at least, the last 5 years.

[Moviegoer @ Jun 9th 2007 8:55AM]

Only a matter of time before someone puts together the hottest Segway chase scene ever on the silver screen involving a derailed 18-wheeler amongst exploding parked cars and pedestrians with broken limbs furiously seeking shelter in crashed storefronts while the baddies simply vanish from the long arms of the law in the end.

[Fubar @ Jun 9th 2007 9:46AM]

All I want for Christmas is to see Lieutenant Frank Drebbin on a Segway.

[Soonerpet @ Jun 9th 2007 9:47AM]

Yet they look like total douchbags on those. I don't know what possesses someone to get on one of those lame things. Every time I see a pic of one I think of the Frasier episode where Niles had one driving around like a dork.

[Flying? @ Jun 9th 2007 10:39AM]

As far as I'm concerned, it's the South Park episode "the entity" where Mr. Garrison creates a new high speed device :-)

[Dan @ Jun 9th 2007 11:10AM]

Worst buddy cop movie ever.

[Linkdead @ Jun 9th 2007 1:09PM]

This is nothing. Here in Indy our mall rent-a-cops have Segways.

[James Quilty @ Jun 9th 2007 2:18PM]

This is the crack team that will finally nab the dread Segway Senior Snatch-and-Grab gang.

www.thewrongguide.com

[Kent Pribbernow @ Jun 9th 2007 2:19PM]

Mwaha! Queue the Benny Hill theme song.

[uclatommy @ Jun 9th 2007 4:13PM]

Can we have a law that forces convicted criminals to have a vasectomy? We need to get rid of the stupid genes from the genepool.

[dan @ Jun 9th 2007 5:03PM]

A eugenicist may argue, if a criminally deemed so dangerous that they must be separated from general public (or killed, if you're Texan), then it should follow that their genes must be kept away from the society's gene pool as well.

Maybe we can offer violent felony criminals a choice, between prison sentence for X years, or the following pacakage: home detention with ankle bracelet for 10 * X years, a vasectomy, banned from marriage/adoption for life.

[Karim @ Jun 9th 2007 7:29PM]

> Maybe we can offer violent felony
> criminals a choice, between prison
> sentence for X years, or the following
> pacakage: home detention with ankle
> bracelet for 10 * X years, a
> vasectomy, banned from marriage/adoption
> for life.

Bad idea, because:

- Letting a serial murderer or rapist sit at home watching TV and surfing the Net while waiting for pizza delivery hardly seems like a good idea
- You haven't established a link between genes and probability of committing a crime
- You haven't established a link between being the child of a felon and propensity to commit felony
- If the felon is not allowed to leave their home, the cost to society may be HIGHER
- The point of incarceration is not to eliminate genes from the gene pool
- Vasectomies are revsersible
- Banning someone from marriage is not the same as banning them from sex or procreation
- The last time eugenics was popular in the country, we ended up committing atrocities like forcibly sterilzing perfectly normal people like Carrie Buck

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Buck

[fuscob @ Jun 9th 2007 7:47PM]

The Chicago police have had Segways for a while, they use them to patrol downtown.

[Puke @ Jun 10th 2007 8:16AM]

Wow! What a waste of taxpayer money. Are bicycles not good enough for fat lazy cops any more?

[Fact9 @ Jun 10th 2007 2:07PM]

Race ya to the candy store-

[Johnny English @ Jun 10th 2007 3:16PM]

Give me a gob.
GOB!

[ibrayud @ Jun 10th 2007 6:41PM]

Some of the people that respond to articles like this about Segways and law enforcement are just completely full of it and bitter. I'm tired of it.

Listen, I hate cops as much as you do and I think a good majority of them are pigs. I am not a cop, I don't want to be a cop, and I never will be anything like a cop or military... I'm a psych major, gay, monogamously partnered for over 2 years, I enjoy recreational drugs like alcohol/tobacco/occasionally weed, I'm a huge geek, read all the tech blogs, assemble my own PCs, I've done web design and development for years, done tech desk, etc etc. So I'm not some kind of a pig myself.

However, I actually have worked for four months as a private duty security guard on bike patrol around a large campus of buildings, because it was "a job" and I needed the cash... and let me tell you something right now: biking for 6-8 hours per day on a 9 hour shift (and surprise 4-8 hour overtime periods), for 5-6 days per week is NOT FUN, even when you get paid overtime and have OK benefits. It is NOT easy. It's also very easy to be fat and do that much exercise, because people who patrol areas on bikes get TOO MUCH cardiovascular exercise, overtrain their muscles, and oftentimes will have a hard time staying lean or losing fat. So until you have had to walk around a building 12 times in a day, or bike around for 8 hours straight, or done something so physically repetitive, high-impact, tiring, and exhaustive for 45+ hours per week, DO NOT say &@#$% about people who do that for a living. If a security guard (lovingly referred to as a rent-a-cop by previous commenters) get to use a Segway, then they probably should, because they are likely dealing with a whole lot of flak, especially for their measly $10-12/hour. Police get paid probably more than they're worth, and they ARE pigs, so they probably don't deserve awesome Segways, but still I can't imagine any person besides Lance Armstrong working 40-60 hours per week patrolling on a bike, and THEN having the energy and physical ability to chase after a suspect and apprehend them.

[Don\\\'t Panic! @ Jun 10th 2007 6:44PM]

Segways were Banned in Boston on sidewalks; Our bike Police pull down their share of miscreants though. But There's something about a Segway chase that blows the mind. HOW DO THOSE THINGS WORK!

[John @ Jun 11th 2007 1:49AM]

why is that tagged California? That's not Long Beach, CA... that's Long Beach, NY. Though our police here in LB, CA do use segways too.

[ashmist @ Jun 11th 2007 1:49AM]

Wouldn't a few well placed curbs end the pursuit? I mean, how hard would it be to lose a Segway?

[John Stracke @ Jun 11th 2007 10:46AM]

I want to see a cop on a Segway chasing a criminal on a Segway.