It appears that San Francisco police is channelling its inner James Bond as the city's crimefighters are now equipped with "quad bikes," an ATV that transforms into a jetski. With the so-called "quadski," cops can speed through the streets and zip around the San Francisco Bay with ease and, yes, with a bit of style as well. America got a glimpse of the vehicle in action last weekend during the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics game as a quadski bearing a policeman patrolled the vicinity of the McCovey Cove. "I gotta believe he's the luckiest guy on the force, right there, riding that thing," commentator Mike Krukow quipped after the footage was shown.
The Quadski is not really a new or groundbreaking technology. It has been around for some time. Jalopnik, for instance, devoted a lengthy review of the amphibious craft last year, saying that it looked like a cross between Kawasaki Ninja and Pontiac Banshee in its ATV form. The city of Dubai also boasts of a fleet of quadskis that currently complements the array of its crime-fighting machines that included Lamborghinis, Bugattis, Bentleys and Ferraris, T3 Middle East reported.
The transformation is reportedly a one-button, five-second affair. (See the video below.) The craft moves into the water with its wheels on and keeps moving farther until some buoyancy is achieved so that the wheels can finally be pulled up.
Practical-minded citizens of San Francisco might begin wondering about the utility of the quadski. Well, it is not designed merely to keep an eye on baseball fans at the Bay but it could seriously amp up the police force's capability to go after criminals. Gizmodo reported that it can clock 45 mph on both land and sea, so it is handy when it comes to catching crooks. This is particularly important as the San Francisco crime rate is among the highest in America. Besides, not an iota of public money was spent since the three quadskis currently in the SFPD arsenal, which reportedly cost $50,000 each, were donations. "The vehicle was a gift from Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff," SFist reported.
