From a force to friends: The plan police need to try to address e-bikes

We cannot accept the recent rhetoric that there is “not much” police can do to tackle reckless e-bike riders. The plan cops can try.

Let me get this out of the way upfront – I’m a self-confessed member of the e-bike cult, I ride to work nearly everyday and love every minute of it. I’ve shaved ten minutes off my old 40 minute car ride in peak hour traffic, I’m losing weight, and saving a small fortune on the fuel bill.

I’m not the only one reaping the rewards. The Queensland Ambulance Service’s Bicycle Response Team was set up in 2017 ahead of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in what the Bulletin reported was “a bid to beat the Gold Coast’s worsening traffic”.

In 2025, the pedalling paramedics on electric bikes are still going strong.

The Queensland Police Service is speeding up its own response times with the help of e-bikes.

Both Queensland police and paramedics have turned to electric bikes to speed up response times. Picture: QAS/QPS.

I think as more people realise the benefits - the number of bikes on our paths and roads will only continue to grow. It’s why we cannot accept the recent rhetoric that there is “not much” police can do to take control of the surge in reckless riders, mainly kids, running riot on our streets. To be fair to the cops, I’ve seen some idiots on bikes, legislation also hasn’t kept pace. The fact they still can’t stop riders of electric scooters or bikes for a random breath test, is in my diplomatic attempt at some form of legalese, an acute deficit in commonsense.

Despite that, they’re not powerless and their counterparts in the New South Wales Police Force are proving it.

Inundated with groups of kids flooding the streets on bikes and riding dangerously, NSW cops deployed the old mantra: if you can’t beat them then join them. They tracked the social media accounts of popular riding influencer Jordan Forte and when a large ride took place in Sydney police were there, not as a force but seemingly as friends.

NSW Police Force take to the streets riding alongside teens in videos posted by influencer Jordan Forte. Picture: Supplied.

The interactions between police and the large group of young riders have become social media content on Forte’s channels.

In one of the Instagram videos, an officer is riding alongside the influencer and sparks-up a conversation about the meet ups.

“Just before you organise these, we can actually close the roads and s**t for you,” the officers says.

“You normally get a pretty s**t response (from police), if you get us at the right time, you might as well try. If you talk to us we’ll do things for you because we’d rather know it’s happening than be in the dark.

“If you let us know like a month in advance ‘hey look we’re going to have approximately 200 people doing this’. It’s like a form 1, fill it out and send it in and if it’s all good we’ll give you 20 cops and close the roads for you.”

A NSW officers attempts to pull a wheelie while riding with the teens.

In another video, the riders appear to stop at a war memorial near Sydney where another exchange unfolds with an officer. In the footage one of the teenagers appears to be on an illegal electric dirt bike, but the police don’t seem to be concerned.

“If you’re going to do wheelies and stuff just don’t do them on the forecourt because it upsets like veterans and associations and stuff,” the officer says.

“Like do it up on the streets up around here but just not on this forecourt area.”

One of the riders responds: “We apologise sorry. We were just worried the cops were going to come and pull us off (our bikes)”.

Those concerns quickly dismissed: “Nah, nah, like we said we’re not doing that s**t,” one officer says.

“Today is about you guys,” another officer adds.

In another video, an officer tries to do a wheelie in a carpark on his police bike. When the footage cuts to a shot where one of the riders nearly clips another, Forte yells “arrest him, arrest him”. The officer happy to give chase and oblige in the banter.

Comments from followers on videos posted by influencer Jordan Forte and his interactions with police.

You might be wondering how this unorthodox strategy has played out for the NSW cops. Well, if the comments on the videos are anything to go by, the kids and punters are overwhelmingly backing team blue. So why can’t we try this in Queensland? What have we got to lose? If anything it’s a reputation boost for our hardworking cops at a time when they need it most.

Not to mention, I reckon most of us would rather kids tearing it up on bikes across our streets than terrorising us with weapons in our own homes.

Originally published as From a force to friends: The plan police need to try to address e-bikes