[TusharK]

Mumbai Police personnel will now patrol on Segway electric scooters.



The police have inducted 50 of these self-balancing electric scooters in their fleet. These will be deployed at Marine Drive in South Mumbai.

The 2-wheeled scooters have an on-board public address system. In addition to drones, the scooters will also be used to monitor social distancing.

The authorities plan to deploy more Segway scooters in Bandra, Juhu and Versova.

Source

Link to Team-BHP News

[rakirank]

While I agree its is time for the police force in this country to modernize, I am not entirely sure of the benefit that will be derived from the use of the Segways.

I actually do like the Segway and wish they become more popular.

That said, I am not sure how effectively these will be used by the cops. I am only stating that they may not be best suited for this purpose given that they need both hands to ride.

Just hope that this does not become another gimmick and all of them are rendered useless in a short period of time.

I honestly hope, I am proved wrong.

[GrammarNazi]

Cops need to be fit & agile, which lets face it - they're usually not. And this is true across the country.

Will a segway make them agile when policing a walking pathway?

India is NOT short of manpower, on the contrary, we have record unemployment & desparately need to deploy human resources wherever manageable.

What does this indicate about the political class towards the people in this economic slowdown ?

Maybe understandable to try to look modern if used by police around & within the Mumbai International Airport, but IMHO this just looks like some influential people pushed them to do this as a whim.

[Nithesh_M]

Like most flashy purchases by any and every govt departments, it won't be long before these are junked in store rooms because the maintenance bills aren't worth the govts money

[sunilch]

Originally Posted by Nithesh_M

Like most flashy purchases by any and every govt departments, it won't be long before these are junked in store rooms because the maintenance bills aren't worth the govts money

Yes, this seems just another fancy purchase by the department. Very soon these will be lost in some junk yard due to no maintenance or lack of parts or lack of suitability or whatever reason they will give.

A wasteful spend for sure.

For the said patrolling, they could have easily hired or put on duty young officers or constables with good bicycles. They would have remained fit with those.

[amit_purohit20]

I would have been happy to see if they would have used electric bicycles especially the one which is made by the Ahmedabad brothers. Made in India to a certain extent.

It would ensure that they get spare parts easily which is the most important parameter to consider while buying any device which you intend to use for longer periods. Even the lack of availability of a single nut can render the vehice useless.

[Reinhard]

I wait for the day when a news like this one doesn't instantly bring questions like the following in my mind -

1. Is this the right way to spend tax payers' money?
2. Was it needed?
3. Is it really useful in our condition, population density & infrastructure?
4. During the current situation, was this so high in the priority list for acquisitions? Really?
   • Especially when the cops themselves enter riot situations wearing cricket helmets and no proper safety gear? A Segway gets approved before that?
5. How long will we actually see them maintained in good condition?
6. How many middle men were involved in this decision?

[dragracer567]

Perhaps a better alternative could've been bicycles? It would keep our cops fit while also encouraging the public to ride more!

[KPR]

The reality is many hobby runners will put police personnel to shame. Other than the recruitment time I find most police don't keep themselves fit during later years of service. Even in movies nowadays police roam around in Boleros to catch a thief. So I'm sure this will help to make a romantic song in an Indian movie with hero chasing down heroine in a Segway along Marine drive.

[Lalvaz]

Sad how most people here have such a deep rooted mistrust of the police force that they suspect this to be a ploy for middlemen to make money off this deal. Can't blame the public for thinking this way either, since the Mumbai police force clearly seems to have muddled priorities.

Whats even worse is that none of these cops are wearing a helmet even though the company recommends wearing one while riding a Segway.

Also didnt understand why there are corporate logos on the vehicles. I can clearly see JSW. Is it sponsored by them?

[PPS]

I've seen these parked inside Churchgate Station in the last 1yr. They are used by the Railway Protection Force during non-peak hours. Using them during peak hours is out of question because the place is teeming with people!

[anjan_c2007]

It appears to be a knee-jerk purchase of an odd item by the concerned, who might have been impressed upon the "sterling' qualities of such a machine to augment policing. Most of their models in the Segway range use pneumatic tyres, are good for a gradient of 20 degrees (not much relevance in a metro like Mumbai), have a speed of upto 20 kmph and have a near 40 km range per charge.

As toys, these will have quite a good response and everyone around or near would like a test drive and if possible challan someone for something like not wearing a face mask, spitting, not following pandemic guidelines and so on. Such challans can get the new Segway e-scooters some browny points to impress observers.

A similar incident happened in 1977, when the then Union Health Minister went on a tour of the U.K. and was shown fully equipped mobile mini-hospitals, that were constructed on Bedford FC truck chassis'. He was thoroughly impressed and ordered some dozens of these to be imported into India. These were handed over to many states for regular use and were quite well used for the first year. Thereafter, when the problems of spares and repairs cropped up, the media raised a furore. Import of motor vehicle spares are prohibitively costly with duties and are still subject to high custom duties. Ultimately, within a few years all these were prematurely grounded.

This is what happens when some top bosses go for knee-jerk purchases of oddities.

[GTO]

Has the "wow" factor, and will surely generate a lot of PR + buzz, but I think that's pretty much it. As BHPians have rightly pointed out, there are far better solutions, all of which are healthier & cheaper.

Segway is not officially in India though, so support will be limited. I think these will end up in a warehouse once the initial novelty wears off. On the other hand, if Segway is indeed planning an India entry, there is no better way to get publicity than to hand these over to the cops for free.

Or maybe, this is just part of the "Marine Drive Beautification" project. Admit it, the Queen's Necklace looks so cool with these .

[2000rpm]

I drove across the Marine drive on saturday, there were no police officer on Segway.

This seems like a media / publicity stunt. The timing of this is wierd.

[vvb8530]

Originally Posted by 2000rpm

I drove across the Marine drive on saturday, there were no police officer on Segway.

This seems like a media / publicity stunt. The timing of this is wierd.

Happened to be driving along marine drive in the evening of the same day when these were launched, cops were using it effectively on that day atleast by riding along the entire stretch and dispersing all the evening walkers. Looked super cool.