How UK POLICE FORCES police ELECTRIC SCOOTERS

REVEALING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE POLICING OF E-SCOOTERS IN THE UK

This post first appeared here.

Key Points

Introduction

After the tragic death of YouTuber Emily Hartridge, when she collided with a lorry while riding an e-scooter in London in July 2019 (at a roundabout where a cyclist has also been killed), the government announced a crackdown on e-scooters. You would hope the police have better things to do, but just how many e-scooter riders have found themselves at the wrong end of the law? To find out, I made two FOI requests to all UK police forces for data on fines given and seizures made for riding e-scooters. The first was made in August 2019 to cover the month after the crackdown and the second in January 2020 to cover the whole of 2019. The table is being updated.

What is an e-Scooter?

It is worth defining "e-scooters" here as there remains some confusion. E-scooters (or electric scooters) are those such as the Xiaomi M365 or Segeway ES2 and hired by the likes of Lime and Bird. Of course, much of the confusion stems from mopeds also being called scooters - and were a moped battery powered it would be reasonable to call it an "electric scooter".

Results

Of those to respond, only the two London police forces seized more than one e-scooter in the whole of 2019. The Metropolitan Police seized 54 e-scooters in 2019 (twenty-five of them in the two weeks after Ms Hartridge's death). The number of e-scooters confiscated from September has averaged less than one a week (please see the second table below, which shows confiscations per month by the Met Police). City of London Police confiscated 12 electric scooters in 2019. An estimated one million people work in the City, and, with only one confiscation in December 2019, one could infer that both London police forces have now refocused their attention on other "offenses". The London police forces also verbally warned more riders (most police forces do not record these), suggesting riders who had scooters confiscated were doing something aggravating to warrant it. The only other forces to have taken recorded action - by confiscating one e-scooter each - were Essex and (possibly) Norfolk. Read more about the law on e-scooters.

Fines and Confiscations by Each Police Force

Police Force	Fines Jan-Aug 2019	Confiscations Jan-Aug 2019	Fines Jan-Dec 2019	Confiscations Jan-Dec 2019
Avon & Somerset	UNAVAILABLE	UNAVAILABLE	UNAVAILABLE	UNAVAILABLE
Bedfordshire	0	0	0	0
Cambridgeshire	0	0
Cheshire Constabulary	UNAVAILABLE	0	UNAVAILABLE	0
City of London Police	0	1	0	12
Cleveland Police	UNAVAILABLE	0
Cumbria	UNAVAILABLE	UNAVAILABLE
Derbyshire Constabulary	UNAVAILABLE	0	UNAVAILABLE	0
Devon & Cornwall Police	0	0	0	0
Dorset Police	0	0
Durham Constabulary
Essex Police	UNAVAILABLE	0	UNAVAILABLE	1
Gloucestershire Constabulary
Greater Manchester	UNAVAILABLE	UNAVAILABLE
Gwent Police	0	0	0	0
Hampshire Constabulary	UNAVAILABLE	UNAVAILABLE
Hertfordshire	0	0	0	0
Humberside Police	0	0	0	0
Kent Police	0	0	0	0
Lancashire Constabulary	UNAVAILABLE	UNAVAILABLE
Leicestershire Police	0	0	0	0
Lincolnshire Police	0	0	0	0
Merseyside	UNAVAILABLE	UNAVAILABLE
Metropolitan Police Service	UNAVAILABLE	25	UNAVAILABLE	54
Norfolk Constabulary	0	1 *	0	1 *
North Wales Police	UNAVAILABLE	0	UNAVAILABLE	0
North Yorkshire
Northamptonshire	0	0
Northumbria Police	0	0
Nottinghamshire Police	UNAVAILABLE	UNAVAILABLE	UNAVAILABLE	UNAVAILABLE
Police Scotland
South Yorkshire	0	UNAVAILABLE
South Wales Police	0	0	0	0
Staffordshire	0	0	0	0
Suffolk Constabulary	0	0	0	0
Surrey Police	0	0
Sussex Police	0	0
Thames Valley	0	0	0	0
Warwickshire Police	UNAVAILABLE	0	UNAVAILABLE	0
West Mercia Police	UNAVAILABLE	0
West Midlands Police	0	0	0	0
West Yorkshire Police **	0	UNAVAILABLE
Wiltshire Police	0	0

* Norfolk reported an "adapted child's scooter" being seized for not having insurance. I have to assume they mean an e-scooter.

** West Yorkshire Police recorded two seizures of "electric scooters" but closer inspection revealed one was in fact an electric bicycle with its pedals missing, meaning that neither of the reported "electric scooter" seizures could be considered reliable.

Confiscations By Metropolitan Police Per Month

Recovering Your Electric Scooter

Having your e-scooter "seized" sounds catastrophic, but what the London police forces are failing to mention in their publicity is that you can simply retrieve your e-scooter - or "motor vehicle" - from one of their their vehicle recovery units (in Charlton or Perivale). It costs £150 plus £10 for every day it is there. It is thus probably worth your while retrieving it. And the best way to avoid having your e-scooter confiscated in the first place seems to be to avoid doing anything "aggravating": the Met Police have stated that there would need to be aggravating circumstances for them to confiscate your e-scooter (though I have heard claims to the contrary).