It’s impossible to miss it: the use of electric scooters has become widely available in recent years. According to the Federation of Micro-Mobility Professionals, it sold nearly 800,000 scooters in France in 2022. Because it’s greener than the car, because it’s no longer so expensive, because it’s fun… It’s also particularly practical for getting around town, in small streets, in the middle of traffic, and disappear in the blink of an eye.
So many advantages that appeal to ordinary people, but also to delinquents, even criminals, who see the electric scooter as an excellent way to commit their crimes or escape the police. This is particularly the case in the recent so-called “scooter rapist” case in Grenoble, for which a 22-year-old suspect was indicted.
The little hands of drug trafficking love it
According to the Interdepartmental Directorate of the National Police (DIPN) of the North, the scooter phenomenon among delinquents is “not particularly new”. The DIPN estimates that the use of this mode of transport among offenders dates back “about two years”. A little more even for this incredible affair that occurred in June 2019, during which two minors stole a safe in an apartment in the 18th arrondissement of Paris before fleeing on a scooter. Also in Paris, in 2021, following the robbery of a jewelry store, the suspect disappeared on the handlebars of a scooter, taking away loot of 3 million euros.
There are many other examples of this type, but the most numerous cases are concentrated in one particular area: drug trafficking. “The use of scooters by lookouts, sellers and refuelers has developed in metropolises where there are deal points,” explains to 20 minutes the Northern DIPN. “In a growing proportion of places of trafficking, we know one of the strategies of traffickers which is to put minors or adults from other neighborhoods on the front line, to man or resupply the drug distribution points and transport the proceeds. », continues Carole Etienne, Lille prosecutor. “This activity is sometimes done on a scooter, bicycle or motorbike,” she explains.
A very widespread means of transport among the “little hands” of drug trafficking, underlines the magistrate, but not only, “In certain districts of Paris, the scooter is often used for snatching of watches or chains neck,” assures Loïc Walder, national delegate of the UNSA National Police union. And all this is not without problems for the police. “There is on the one hand the ease of escape that this provides, but above all the difficulty for the police to identify a vehicle without a distinctive sign, such as a license plate,” recognizes the trade unionist.
Soon police officers on scooters?
“We are adapting our systems to deal with, for example, the employment of motorcyclists,” retorts the DIPN du Nord. “We have the means, it’s true,” admits Loïc Walder, citing in particular the bicycle police brigades. “But what do you want a police officer on a mountain bike to do if he has to intercept an individual riding an unbridled scooter?, he asks. We must continue thinking about new means,” insists the trade unionist, without closing the door to the possible use of scooters within the police.
And if the scooter proves to be a fatal weapon in certain cases, the use of such a device can also help to catch criminals. For the “scooter rapist” from Grenoble, the prosecution recognized that the particular model of machine that the suspect used was one of the elements that allowed investigators to find his trace. And in the matter of the attacker of prostitutes in Lillebetween February and December 2023, the mode of operation and means of travel made it possible to attribute eight acts to the suspect.