INDIANAPOLIS — Parked just past the metal detectors inside the Community Justice Center sits a line of electric scooters.
These aren't toys. These are police vehicles, fully equipped with lights and sirens.
"They're pretty agile. They're fast," Marion County Sheriff's Office Deputy Chief Kelvis Wiliams said. "We have a new big facility here, with wide hallways. We have a big parking lot and our deputies can use these to patrol."
They are called Trikke Professional Mobility vehicles. The county has four of them — three in the CJC and one at the jail.
"They actually use them to run up and down the hallways within the jail," Williams said. "The jail is pretty big and these get our deputies to places where they need to be in a timely fashion."
Each Trikke scooter cost the county about $9,000, Williams said. The scooters save time and save on gas because deputies don't need cars to get around the sprawling Community Justice Campus.
"They're very quiet which makes them conducive to use indoors," Major Bryce Wolf said. "The nice thing about them from my standpoint is that they make the deputies very approachable to the public."
WRTV saw several people approached the deputies and ask about the scooters on Thursday. One woman even took a selfie with the officers.
"We get a lot of looks from the visitors. They ask if we get paid to actually do this kind of stuff," Sgt. Jason Lakas said. "Someone says they are like electric horses. I say yeah, without the cleanup."
Contact WRTV reporter Vic Ryckaert at victor.ryckaert@wrtv.com or on X/Twitter: @vicryc.
