News-Record.com

GREENSBORO - The police department is equipped to take downtown patrol to a whole new level - about 8 inches higher than it used to be.

The city announced Wednesday the donation of two Segway electric personal transporters donated by developer Roy Carroll .

Officer Ryan Todd, a member of the department's center city resource team, which patrols downtown, has been testing a Segway for a week. Todd normally patrols by bike.

"I've been approached more on the Segway than I would have been on the bike," Todd said. "Even if it's just because of the novelty, I think it's going to be a useful tool long after the novelty has worn off."

The Segway goes pretty much wherever a person on foot can, with the help of accessibility ramps, and operates at speeds from a slow walk up to 12 miles per hour, the pace of a Kenyan marathoner. A Segway's battery lasts for 24 miles and can recharge in two hours for about 15 cents' worth of electricity, Carroll said.

The advantage the police department hopes to get from the devices is more in visibility than in chasing down crooks. A Segway makes officers stand taller in crowds and gives them more options for getting around than they would have on foot or on a bike. "It's not a pursuit tool," Todd said.

Police Chief Tim Bellamy said use of the Segways may expand in the future, from downtown to neighborhoods, parks and shopping centers.

Carroll got the idea when he was buying a Segway of his own to ride around downtown, he said. At the store, he learned of the number of police agencies using the personal transporters for patrol and asked Bellamy whether the department could use them.

The donation is unrelated to an offer from Downtown Greensboro Inc . to begin a horse-mounted patrol downtown, said city spokeswoman Elaine Tricoli .

Bellamy hasn't ridden the Segway yet, but he said he will as soon as he can find time to go through the training .

"It looks like a very exciting, easy piece of equipment to use," Bellamy said.

The $13,000 donation from a private citizen is "one of the greatest things to happen in Greensboro in a long time," Bellamy said.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or sonja.elmquist@news-record.com