Where tourists mill, there’s a Segway
Police are taking to two wheels — and enlisting four-legged friends — as they roll out a new strategy to boost public confidence in the wake of last week’s Paragon twin bombings.
Officers have been assigned to patrol key tourist areas on Segways, a motorised stand-up two-wheeler popular with law enforcement officers and tour agencies abroad, while bomb disposal experts and sniffer dogs have also been deployed.
Pol Maj Gen Apichai Ti-amataya, commander of the Tourist Police Division, said he had assigned his Segway team to run the campaign in a bid to instil confidence in visitors.
“I ordered the tourist police in the area to bring out the Segways … to patrol the area on the skywalk connecting Siam Paragon to Central Chidlom,” he said.
With a top speed of about 20km/h and an inability to tackle stairs and other obstacles, the Segway is hardly an ideal vehicle for chasing suspects down Bangkok’s notoriously uneven walkways.
But Pol Lt Col Bornwornphop Soontornlekha, the inspector of Tourist Police Station 2 Division 1, said this wasn’t the point. The machines, he said, were designed more as a show of force.
“It is the best way for us to make tourists feel safe, as we are highly visible and can better publicise our presence,” Pol Lt Col Bornwornphop, who is in charge of the Pathumwan and Sukhumvit area, said.
“Tourists just love the Segway police, as I saw many ask to take pictures with them. The Segway is truly a star for our division.”
The machine is not a new addition to the police force, being used since 2007 in the sprawling corridors of Suvarnabhumi airport. The Segway proved so effective in boosting the visibility of officers that the Tourist Police later expanded its fleet to cover Don Mueang airport and key tourist sites in Chiang Mai and Pattaya.
“The Segway is a very good vehicle to use since it is quiet, produces no pollution and can manoeuvre in tight spaces easily,” Pol Maj Gen Apicha said.
Despite its high manoeuvrability and in-built balance-control system, learning to control a Segway takes time, as several high-profile figures have discovered.
British TV presenter Piers Morgan broke three ribs falling off one of the machines, and former US president George W Bush fell from one in 2003, grazing his cheek. The multimillionaire owner of the company that makes the Segway died in a freak accident in 2010, plunging off a 25-metre cliff while riding one of his vehicles.
Pol Maj Gen Apichai said he will be placing an order for more units under the 2016 fiscal budget.