Police departments around the country are increasingly finding themselves in a difficult position when it comes to illegal electric motorbike riders tearing through neighborhoods, parks, and bike trails. In one Colorado town, officials are now trying a new strategy after struggling to catch many of the riders themselves: asking residents to help identify them.
The Parker Police Department, located south of Denver, recently launched an online reporting portal that allows locals to anonymously submit information about unsafe riding activity involving electric motorcycles, dirt bikes, and similar vehicles. Residents can report things like stunt riding, running stop signs, unsafe lane changes, and riding through parks or trails.
Importantly, officials are making a distinction that many people often fail to recognize. Despite commonly being referred to online as “e-bikes,” many of the vehicles causing problems are not electric bicycles at all. They’re actually high-powered electric motorcycles such as Sur-Rons and Talaria-style bikes that are designed primarily for off-road use and are generally not street legal in their stock form.
That distinction matters because actual electric bicycles in the US are regulated under the familiar three-class e-bike system, with speed and power limits intended to keep them compatible with bike infrastructure and mixed-use paths. These electric motorcycles, on the other hand, often lack registration, insurance, VIN compliance, and proper safety equipment like specific DOT-compliant brakes, lighting, and mirrors.
The problem facing police is that many riders are young, highly mobile, and willing to flee. In many jurisdictions, officers are discouraged from pursuing riders due to the danger that high-speed chases can pose to the public, especially in suburban neighborhoods or crowded urban environments. Riders know it, too, and social media is filled with videos of illegal street riding and police evasion.
Some police departments have turned to innovative solutions, such as small drones that can follow riders home, but many departments have been left struggling to respond as complaints pile up from residents about reckless riding, damaged trails, and near misses with pedestrians and cars.
Colorado’s new reporting system essentially creates a crowdsourced enforcement network, allowing police to gather information without needing to initiate risky pursuits. Whether that approach spreads to other cities remains to be seen, but it highlights how rapidly this issue has escalated nationwide.
And unfortunately, the longer people continue lumping these vehicles together with legitimate electric bicycles, the more likely it becomes that actual e-bike riders end up caught in the regulatory backlash aimed at illegal electric motorcycles.
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