VIDEO: More than 100 e-scooters and e-motorcycles crushed in first year of Operation Crush, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary’s crackdown on illegal use of electric vehicles

More than 100 e-scooters and e-motorcycles have been crushed in the first year of a police crackdown on the illegal use of electric vehicles.

Hampshire police stated that the illegal use of these privately owned, powered, two-wheel vehicles has been “a blight on many of our communities in recent years” due to there being a rise in them being used to commit serious crimes.

Police also stated that they put their riders and other road users as risk of serious injury “due to the careless and dangerous manner in which they are often used”.

Last year, Hampshire’s police and crime commissioner Donna Jones signed a contract to enable Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary to enhance the powers of its officers by using existing legislation to give them the option to destroy any e-scooter or e-motorcycle that is being used in crime.

Known as Operation Crush, the police force has already deemed this targeted campaign a success.

In 2024, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary seized 105 of these vehicles, an increase from 41 in 2023. More than 50 of these were e-scooters.

These were all used illegally or were involved in another crime and have since been destroyed.

Police sergeant Jamie Dobson said: “By using these enhanced powers to destroy these vehicles after seizing them, we are stopping these criminals from going straight back out and committing the same offences multiple times.

“It is a significant new weapon in our armoury to help us combat the rise in these vehicles being used in criminality and anti-social behaviour.

“The campaign was launched to crackdown on the illegal use of these vehicles, which had become increasingly popular with those committing a variety of different crimes, including those involved in drugs gangs.”