Law enforcement officers (LEOs) worldwide ride motorcycles in their policing duties. Whether it’s highway patrol riders or urban police officers on motorcycles, bikes have a practical use in law enforcement. As such, departments use a multitude of different official motorcycle models to help police officers get the job done.

Police officers ride many different types of motorcycles, from Harley-Davidsons to BMWs and Kawasakis

Police officers worldwide ride every conceivable size and style of motorcycle. From big Polizei cruisers in Germany to Honda ST1100s in Australia, motorcycle cops are part of the fabric of law enforcement. American police officers, on the other hand, tend to stick to law enforcement derivations of popular models from Harley-Davidson, BMW, and Yamaha. 

Here are just a few of the motorcycles you might expect to see in police liveries across the United States:

• Harley-Davidson FLHTP
• BMW R 1250 RT-P
• Kawasaki Concours 14P
• Yamaha FJR1300P
• Zero DSRP

When American motorists conjure mental images of LEOs on two wheels, they likely imagine highway patrolmen in long leather boots astride a Harley-Davidson FLHP or FLHTP Electra Glide. Today, the MoCo offers department-ready versions of the Electra Glide, Road King, and the fixed-fairing Road Glide. 

Of course, if you watched any CHiPs, you remember the buddy cop duo on Kawasaki KZ-Ps. However, since the old 1,000-cc police bikes of the 1970s and 1980s, the Japanese marque stepped back into the police game with the Concours 14P. However, Kawasaki dropped out of the police market in 2012, per Cycle World. The Yamaha FJR1300P, a spiritual successor to the Kawasaki for motorcycle police officers, is still in use in the US and Europe.

Believe it or not, police departments have a use for electric motorcycles in urban law enforcement. These zero-emissions bikes are nimble, torquey, and, most importantly, nearly silent. As such, California police departments have adopted Zero EV bikes to chase down baddies and cruise city streets.