Queensland police seized 558 non-compliant e-mobility devices and issued more than 2,400 traffic infringement notices to riders in the first three months of Operation Yankee Surety, the Queensland Police Service said on Friday 2 October. More than 60 per cent of those fines, about 1,500, went to riders who were not wearing a helmet.
Operation Yankee Surety is a statewide enforcement operation that began on 1 July and is scheduled to run until 30 June 2027, so the figures released on Friday cover the first quarter of a planned twelve months. Over that quarter, 157 riders were caught speeding, and police carried out 878 roadside breath tests on e-mobility riders, intercepting 68 drink riders, according to the QPS release. Licensing restrictions took effect part way through the period, on 31 August, and police have issued 64 tickets under them since that date.
Averaged across the three months, the totals come to about six devices seized and more than 27 notices issued a day, ABC News reported.
The QPS data also shows where the enforcement was concentrated. The Sunshine Coast led the state for seizures with 146 devices, ahead of the Gold Coast with 88, the ABC reported from the police figures. For infringement notices, North Brisbane recorded 511 and South Brisbane 433, followed by Capricornia with 254 and Mackay Whitsunday with 133. Brisbane also recorded the most positive breath tests among e-mobility riders, a combined 38.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Tim Partrige, of the QPS Emergency Response and Coordination Command, said the operation was aimed at everyone using the state’s roads and paths. “As with any road safety operation, our goal under Operation Yankee Surety is to protect all road and pathway users, including those on e-mobility devices,” he said.
Mr Partrige said detections had not let up since the laws began. “In just three months of the new legislation being operationalised, police have issued more than 2,400 fines to riders not following the rules and continue to detect more dangerous riders every day,” he said. He also warned that dangerous riding can have life-threatening consequences.
Startup Daily, in a report by Simon Thomsen, carried the same figures independently on 2 October.
Queensland is not the only state changing the rules for getting around. Victoria, for one, used its transport policy to make public transport free for under-18s.
Nine More Months of Enforcement
The first three months leave about nine more under the operation, which runs until 30 June 2027. The licensing restrictions that began on 31 August had been in force for about a month when the figures were released, so the 64 tickets issued under them cover a much shorter window than the other totals in the release.
Mr Partrige said: “Non-compliant devices and dangerous riding have no place in our communities, and police will continue to take enforcement action against those disregarding the law.”
Sources: Queensland Police Service, “More than 550 non-compliant devices seized and 2,400 fines issued in first three months of Operation Yankee Surety”, 2 October 2026 (https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/news/2026/10/02/more-than-550-non-compliant-devices-seized-and-2400-fines-issued-in-first-three-months-of-operation-yankee-surety/); ABC News, “Queensland Police seize more than 500 e-mobility devices and issue 2,300 fines in three months”, 2 October 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-02/qld-e-mobility-devices-seized-and-2-300-fines-issued-in-3-months/107222062); Startup Daily, “90 days of Queensland’s new e-bike crackdown delivered some pretty wild numbers, including 2500 fines”, 2 October 2026 (https://www.startupdaily.net/topic/other-tech/90-days-of-queenslands-new-e-bike-crackdown-delivered-some-pretty-wild-numbers-including-2500-fines/)
Photo: John Robert McPherson, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A privately owned e-scooter and e-bike locked to a bike rail in a shopping centre car park in Chermside, Brisbane, photographed in 2024. This photograph is illustrative; the devices shown are not connected to the seizures.
