Zurich police e-bikes to have sirens and flashing lights

The new e-bikes have already proven themselves dozens of times in real police operations Stadtpolizei Zürich

The 20 fast electric bicycles belonging to Zurich city police will all be equipped with sirens and blue flashing lights. This is a Swiss first, the force said on Thursday – at the same time denying it was an April Fool’s joke.

The experimental fitting of the first two high-performance electric bikes – also called electric motorbikes – with sirens and flashing lights was announced last year on April 1. As a result, many people thought it was a gag.

“What sounded like a genuine April Fool’s joke has in fact already proven itself dozens of times in real police operations and will now be definitively introduced after a test phase of about one year,” Zurich police said in a statementExternal link on Thursday.

Zurich is the first police force in Switzerland to equip all fast e-bikes marked as police vehicles with a system approved by the cantonal Road Traffic Office, it said. “Future fast e-bikes will also receive the equipment for urgent official journeys right from the start.”

In 2018 the Zurich police bought three of these fast electric bicycles for testing. Since then it has bought 17 more and decided to dispense with classic bicycles.