London police have apparently decided that if you can’t beat them, join them – or at least get yourself the same electric bike.

The Metropolitan Police has expanded its fleet of high-powered electric two-wheelers used to chase suspects across London, adding 20 new electric motorbikes and bringing the fleet to 25. The machines can reach speeds of around 50 mph (80 km/h), hop curbs, tackle stairs, and follow suspects into places where a traditional police motorcycle, electric bicycle, or squad car simply can’t go.

And judging by the photos released by Scotland Yard, those bikes are Sur-Rons – the very same type of lightweight electric dirt bikes that have become infamous for their use by criminals and illegal street riders in London.

The irony is pretty thick. Even an official Sur-Ron social media page posted a quip about it.

Sur-Ron-style electric motorcycles have more frequently been referred to by a new colloquialism of “e-motos,” separating it from the more longstanding colloquialism of “e-bikes” that has long encompassed a wide range of two-wheeled EVs from lightweight electric bicycles to higher powered rides. But legally speaking, these Sur-Rons are mostly just electric dirt bikes, far from anything considered road legal in the UK.

5 mph (25 km/h). Anything exceeding those limits is generally treated as a motor vehicle and must meet the corresponding registration, insurance, licensing, and approval requirements to be legally operated on public roads.

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