Arrested by Officer Segway

By Peter Mavrik in News on Sep 4, 2007 4:15PM

Whenever we talk about Segways, it seems that people fall into two camps. There are those who love them, and those who think they are the most ridiculously superfluous gizmos on the planet. Even here at Chicagoist we are divided on the merits of them. Regardless of their pros or cons, whenever we hear of a good deed done by someone on a Segway we tend to applaud the rider.

Yesterday Officer Thaddeus Martyka heard some gun shots while on traffic patrol on his Segway. After seeing two men running west on 21st he began chasing them, but not on foot. With his Segway capable of a top speed of nearly 13 mph, Officer Martyka managed to chase one of the suspects until he tired of running. After he hopped off his Segway and slapped the handcuffs on the exhausted perp, he radioed for backup to pick up the .25-caliber that was ditched in an alley during the chase. The gun was recovered, and the second suspect is still being sought.

The moral of this story, as much a some people may not like to admit, is that Segways actually do have potential to fight crime in Chicago. Segways don't get tired. They may not be able to take an officer in pursuit everywhere they need to go, but Officer Martyka's example is undoubtedly going to change the rules.

And trust us, when CPD begins training officers to use Segways specifically for the pursuit of suspects, we're going to try our best to sit in on that class and take as many photos as possible. We can only imagine what that obstacle course will look like.

Image courtesy of Brett Gustafson via Wikipedia.org.