Why Would Police Departments Buy Harley Bikes For Their Motorcycle Officers?
The police departments get a bid, on all bike makes, from the makers, and, they(the police departments) choose the lowest bid, to buy from. Weather it is Harley-Davidson, or, BMW, or whoever, the one who submits the lowest bid, gets the contract. Same goes for any city, state, or, county police departments, or any of the small towns, in between. That is how it is done. The lowest bidder gets the contract, to supply the police departments, with their motorcycles.
The police buy Harley’s because the motorcops are on them all day, everyday. You just can’t do that with a rice rocket without screwing up your knees. All the extra equipment that the police have to carry would never fit on a rice bike. Most police departments have a no chase policy.It really does not matter how fast your bike can go, if they want you bad enough all they need to do is put a helicopter in the air.
Police motorcycles are bought with the same considerations as police cars. Some manufacturers of bikes make police specific models, and Harley has a long history of that. Heavy traffic operation (lane splitting, easy shoulder riding), cargo capacity, comfort, and maintenance are big concerns. My bike requires me to tool on it at _least_ every 500 miles for the chain alone. The police Harley models have a 5,000 mile maintenance timeframe. You can bet the electrical system is beefy too with all the lights. Harley also sells models with radar sped units built in. Police don’t buy up Hayabusa bikes (yes, I saw the Oklahoma link) on a regular basis for the same reason they don’t keep fleets of high-end sports cars. It’s just not effective in terms of cost of utility. Consider the gear that motorcycle officers wear, and that you’ve probably never seen high speed pursuit footage with a motorcycle doing the chasing. The risk to an officer in pursuit on a bike is unlikely to be taken. American
