From the Vault – A short history of police motorcycles

In February 1925 Police Commissioner William Ryan purchased the first police motorcycles – three model Harley-Davidson “Indian” motorcycles with attached sidecars. By late 1925 police motorcycles were being used to advantage by Detectives and fingerprint experts to get to places not served by public transport.

In 1936, as the number of cars and motorcycles increased, the old stables at the Petrie Terrace Police Depot were converted into the police garage (this building still exists and is located on the left as you enter the new Barracks development from Petrie Terrace).

By 1938 there were 38 motorcycles in the police fleet, made up of Royal Enfield motorcycles with side cars; English 1000ccs AJS’ and  BSA 1000cc V twin bikes. By the 1960s Nortons, Triumphs and a few BSA Lightening bikes were in use. Safety helmets for police motorcyclists were introduced in 1957. In 1975 there were 104 motorcycles patrolling the state.

As of November 2005 the service maintained a fleet of 87 Honda motorcycles to perform traffic, general, ceremonial and special operations, across the state. In 2006 the Service offered police officers a choice between the new Honda ST1100P or BMW R11500P and the new models that superseded them.  Today motorcycle officers ride on either BMW or Yamaha bikes.

By April 2013 there were 95 police motorcycles in service: one BMW RT1200RT, 27 Honda ST1300s and 67 Yamaha FJR1300As.

This information has been supplied by the Queensland Police Museum from the best resources available at the time of writing.

The Police Museum is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and 10am to 3pm on the last Sunday of the month (Feb-Nov) and is located on the Ground Floor of Police Headquarters at 200 Roma Street, Brisbane.

Contact: E: museum@police.qld.gov.au

“From the Vault – A short history of police motorcycles”  by the Queensland Police Service is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (BY) 2.5 Australia Licence. Permissions may be available beyond the scope of this licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode