Edmonton police officers will soon be rolling around on Segways to fight crime and patrol city streets.
The Edmonton Police Service unveiled new Segway Police Patrollers Thursday.
The EPS purchased six of the patrollers as an additional resource to help community policing initiatives and say the Segways will help officers respond to emergencies faster.
Sup. Tony Harder says the segways work well on trails, over speed bumps and up hills.
"We don't ride them upstairs, I mean you can certainly get off and move it up stairs. We've been in escalators. We've been in tunnels downtown already testing them. We've been on the LRT with them. So we're going to be able to access pretty much any place," Harder said.
"The idea of the Segway is to allow us a higher level of accessibility to people, to events, patrollnig busy areas like downtown areas, Whyte Avenue-type areas, Stony Plain Road, and the idea is we're going to have a little more accessibility to people and speed to react to things that are going on as well as the pro-active abilities that it provides us."
The Segways can travel up to 20 km/h, are electric and can travel up to 38 kilometres on one charge.
Police say each charge requires approximately 20 cents worth of electricity.
"They're very good for us," Harder said.
The Segways cost $7,000 each.
Officers began training on the Segways this week.
Acting Sgt. Dwayne Williams is one officer being trained to use the Segways.
He says the patrollers give police an extra advantage, especially in busy pedestrian areas.
"Having the Segways as another utility or tool to use is a perfect alternative when we don't want to use the bikes," he said.
"The Segway has its uses over our bikes, over our patrol cars. For example if we're in a highly densely-populated area like Hawrelak Park for Heritage Days or a festival in Churchill Square, having a bike puts us at head level or lower and is a lot harder to move as opposed to the Segways we're now a foot or two feet above the average person. We can see further, we can respond to stuff a bit quicker than waiting for it to be called in and we can move through a crowd a lot easier than being in a bike."
Edmonton bylaw officers also recently began using Segways for parking enforcement.
Chris Szydlowski with Segway Alberta says the units are gaining popularity across Canada but are becoming more widely used in Alberta specifically.
"RCMP in Red Deer City use Segways, they have four of their own. Sylvan Lake uses Segways for RCMP. Calgary Police use Segways at the airport," Szydlowski said.
"It's growing in Quebec, it's growing in Ontario, it's growing in Nova Scotia. It's clean, green and environmentally-friendly, it's a great way to move people around."
The units will be rolled out in the next few months, in all areas of the city but with a specific focus on the downtown core.
With files from Veronica Jubinville
