Criminals, beware: Starting today, a cop mounted on the city's newest crime-fighting weapon may come scooting after you at a lightning 12.5 mph.
Ten Segway motor scooters - high-tech gizmos that balance themselves and anticipate their riders' moves - are being deployed at nine parks, stadiums and beaches.
They may not be very fast, but they're expected to be worth every penny of the $53,000 the city paid for them.
"Their obvious advantages are visibility and mobility," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Some 25 cops have been trained to use the machines - and they'll be joining the city's most exclusive driving club.
That's because any civilian who buys one and drives one along a public street is asking for a ticket.
In New York state, only a law enforcement officer can use a Segway.
Earlier this month, a Brooklyn resident was fined $90 for using one to commute to his Manhattan job.
The Segway officers were trained in Central Park and Prospect Park, Kelly said.
"Once you do it, you learn it pretty easily," the commissioner said.
"We're assigning them to the parks and beaches because they're suitable for the pathways and boardwalks there," he added.
"You can cover a lot more ground than when you are walking,"
The areas getting the devices are Coney Island and Prospect Park in Brooklyn; Orchard Beach, the Bronx Zoo, and Yankee Stadium in The Bronx; Flushing Meadows Park, Shea Stadium and Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens; and Manhattan's Central Park.
A Segway's travel range is up to 24 miles on a single electrical charge.
A 2004 pilot program involving the department's test use of a dozen Segways was well received by both the cops and the public.
But there was a hitch - a design malfunction that forced the NYPD to send them back.
"When the battery began to die, the gyroscope would fail, causing the Segway to topple," Kelly explained.
That glitch has been corrected.
"The Segway now slows to a stop when the battery needs recharging," he said.
To prove it, Anna Serrano, a 12-year veteran, gave a brief demonstration of the device outside of Police Headquarters, where she pirouetted and went forward and backward with the grace of a motorized ballerina.
Republished with permission of The New York Post.
