I demand that there be a cycle specific branch of the police force dedicated entirely to bike theft

[Cyclopathic]

...and vandalism. If needs be it can be partially privately funded or sponsored but it should be absolutely s#*t hot with all the latest crime fighting tools at its disposal. They should think nothing of sending a forensic team to the scene of a theft and swabbing for dna and looking at foot prints and all that malarky. A bit like the F.B.I but British and for bikes and related crime. It should no longer be a question of ringing the police just to get a crime number to validate an insurance claim, they should have Columbo on the job (you know what I mean) and they should come along and shine ultra violet light at stuff and have a massive data base full of..of..well data. And it should be set up to have links with other countries to counter international bike theft.
After violent crime to the person bike theft is the worst of all possible crimes and should be taken seriously. Instead of blowing loads of cash on a nuclear deterrent that we haven't even used we should spend the money on bike cops.

 

[swee'pea99]

And they should be armed to the teeth and Licensed To Kill.

 

[Black Sheep]

I take it you've had a bike stolen / damaged?

 

[Maz]

They should be called The Chopper Squad !

 

[Cyclopathic]

I take it you've had a bike stolen / damaged?

Not in the very recent past but I've had a few nicked over the years and always hear about bikes being nicked off people I know. What irks me is that the theif won't appreciate the bike like its owner did and will probably ruin it by trying to make it less identifiable. And all the other stuff that goes with having a bike nicked...that irks me too.

 

[marinyork]

There is a squad in London I believe. Elsewhere, I don't believe there is. London is streets ahead of so many places on cycling.

 

[Cyclopathic]

They should be called The Chopper Squad !

They could be like The Sweeny but a lot less namby pamby and more direct and hands on. It could be where they transfer coppers to who might have been thought to be a bit to errr...violent in their aproach to the job.

 

[Cyclopathic]

There is a squad in London I believe. Elsewhere, I don't believe there is. London is streets ahead of so many places on cycling.

That bloomin' London. They get everything. If you live outside the M25 or the better bits of the home counties then you might as well not exist.

 

[byegad]

Demand away Plod is too busy playing politics and fighting crimes they see as important to do anything about it.

 

[TheDoctor]

+1
I'm against capital punishment for murder and such like, but I'd happily see bike thieves and vandals burnt at the stake!

 

[gary in derby]

They should be called The Chopper Squad !

or brompton bobbies

 

[marinyork]

That bloomin' London. They get everything. If you live outside the M25 or the better bits of the home counties then you might as well not exist.

There are some quite impressive stories of bikes that have been tracked down by that unit told by people on here.

Unfortunately in other places attitudes towards any kind of cycling stuff whether it be accidents or thefts/damage is highly variable even in places that should 'know better' because there are a lot of cyclists. I can only hope this slowly changes as starting with the worlds and vuelta in 2011 and through this year with the olympics and TdF and tour of britain there has been a lot of good coverage and I'm very keen to see local stats on cycling for 2012 (it seems to be on the up round here).

A paramedic's bicycle was even stolen around here a while ago.

Sadly a lot of the horror stories with regards thefts that I've come across (around here and another city) have unfortunately been with very poor locks.

 

[Drago]

Cambridge did have a small team.

2 main problems - theft isn't a 'priority crime', ie, one of the performance indicators the government uses to score a force.

And in most surveys if human beings the top priorities they identify aren't usually crime, but stuff like noisy kids, fog fouling, speeding etc, quite often things which fall outside of the polices remit.

But as a cyclist I agree with the sentiment, even if last time I got funding to do free cycle marking, go mentioned in the paper, interviewed on the radio, only 2 people turned up. When the majority of cycle users take responsibility for securing their property, making it less attractive to the light Fingered with marking, and make a note of frame numbers, then we have a moral case.

 

[gary in derby]

how about setting up our own private insetigators? could call it Claud and Butler Pi

 

[Norm]

How, or why, does a thread on bike theft generate a gratuitous image like the one I've just deleted?

Please, guys (because it always is!), keep it relevant.