London’s police have landed on an unusual anti-crime strategy: ride the exact same illegal bikes as the criminals they’re chasing. The Metropolitan Police has expanded its fleet of high-powered electric two-wheelers used to pursue suspects — and the machines are Sur-Rons, the very type of lightweight electric dirt bike that has become infamous in the hands of London’s phone-snatchers and illegal street riders. The irony is thick enough that even an official Sur-Ron account posted a quip about it.

If you can’t beat them, ride what they ride

The Met added 20 new electric motorbikes, bringing the fleet to 25. The bikes can hit around 50 mph (80 km/h), hop curbs, tackle stairs, and follow suspects into places a traditional police motorcycle, e-bicycle or squad car simply can’t reach. They’ll operate across Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, and Hammersmith & Fulham.

Fighting fire with the same fire

Sur-Rons became popular with criminals for the same reasons enthusiasts love them: quick, quiet, narrow, lightweight and ridiculously capable off-road. Legally, they’re mostly electric dirt bikes — far from road-legal in the UK — which is why officers have seized more than 2,500 illegal e-bikes and e-scooters this year alone, many modified with high-powered batteries or ridden uninsured. Putting the same machines under police riders is a blunt admission that you can’t catch a Sur-Ron with a squad car.

The bigger picture

Mayor Sadiq Khan praised the rollout, framing it as a faster, more agile response to street crime like phone theft. It’s a neat symbol of how e-mobility has outrun the vehicles built to police it: when the fastest thing on the street is a stripped-down electric dirt bike, the only way to keep up is to get on one too.

Written for Red Robot with AI assistance and human editing. Based on reporting by Electrek.