Crime
E-Bike Busters: British police should be given weapons against criminals on fast electric bikes
Will the British police soon be using a proton blaster to hunt down e-bike villains?
© Ronald Grant / Imago Images
An attack with an e-bike happens extremely quickly – many of the bikes are so fast that you can save yourself the chase. Unless you have a secret weapon up your sleeve.
Thefts are commonplace in major European cities. The thieves are becoming more and more creative – attacks with scooters, motorcycles or now especially e-scooters and e-bikes are quick, effective and make tracking extremely difficult. According to the “Guardian” on a solution for electric escape vehicles.
According to Gavin Stephens, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), law enforcement agencies and the Defense Science and Technology Lab are researching a type of electromagnetic pulse weapon to disable engines at a distance.
Motors of e-bikes tricked
Stephens explained that the device was a rifle with a “huge backpack” that was visually reminiscent of the Ghostbusters’ proton blaster. Instead of a beam that captures ghosts, it should fire electromagnetic pulses that could stop e-bikes and e-scooters.
Such an impulse tricks the electronics in the vehicle and signals to the engine that it is about to overheat. This causes a shutdown because the drive must avoid damage. This safety feature, which, according to Stephens, all electric motors have in common, is therefore misused.
“Hopefully” no danger
The new weapon was already tested at the beginning of the year. Stephens explained: “The developers have also told me that it has the potential to be useful in normal combustion engine vehicles.”
The only disadvantage, apart from the dimensions of the equipment: for effective use there must be visual contact between the weapon and the vehicle, otherwise the impulses would not be effective, it was said. The Guardian writes that the police “hope” that there is no danger to people or other electronic devices when the pulses are fired.
Electromagnetic waves have been used in car chases for a long time, but criminals in metropolitan areas are increasingly relying on maneuverable two-wheelers, it is said. The police hope that the development will only take a few months and that they can expect operational devices soon, according to the report.