Merseyside Police tackled more than 250 crimes involving an e-scooter or e-bike in less than year

The use of e-scooters has become a ‘hot spot issue’ with the Liverpool public, Merseyside’s police and crime commissioner has said.

Police tackled more than 250 crimes with an e-scooter or e-bike in less than year, according to a review from Merseyside Police.

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Figures taken from between September 2020 to May 2021 showed there had been a total of 258 crimes reported with an e-scooter or e-bike, the majority were in the Liverpool area, which had seen an increase in offences.

Amanda Ross, Merseyside Police analytics and information officer revealed the figures at the police and crime commissioner’s scrutiny meeting last month.

She said that the most common offence was drug possession and use, in addition to public order offences which were on an increasing trend.

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“The majority of offences related to the offender being stopped on a scooter and a bike and a Section 23 search being conducted and them being found in possession of cannabis,” she explained.

Merseyside’s police and crime commissioner Emily Spurrell said the issue of e-scooters had been raised a lot with her by the public as it was such a ‘hot spot issue’. She questioned whether Merseyside Police was being proactive enough and ‘alive’ to tackling any issues including driving on the pavement.

Assistant chief constable John Roy who joined the meeting via video link said the force had been proactive and added: “Take the Voi scheme in Liverpool, you have to support that in terms of the green agenda, but it did lead to a significant amount of anti-social behaviour.”

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He said that Voi, the e-scooter rental scheme operators, had been responsive and worked with the force to put curfews in place to prevent the scooters being used in the night-time economy and addressed where they were being stored.

ACC Roy said that Operation Mute had been tackling the wider general use of electric scooters by members of the public.

He said: “On a public road or pavement they [private e-scooters] are unlawful to ride and there has been a significant amount of enforcement activity, arrests made, scooters seized and prosecutions. Everything from dangerous driving through to drink and drug driving and then linking into other crime types.”

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He said that every day local policing teams were working with local authority counterparts to tackle any problems and that the force was ‘getting a real grip’ on the issue to see a reduction in the number of incidents.