Police slack attitude on the theft of bikes... Shameful!

[alimantado]

Hi everyone Im here because Im a seasoned biker and was led here by the theft of two bikes in two weeks, in the vain attempt to find both of them, I do street trials, and my bikes are very unusual in the Metropolitan so I came here in the hopes of spotting them.
Im appalled at the lack of police commitment with stolen bikes, yet they seem to value mobile phones and respond to theft of them, whereas bikes costing a £1000.00, seem to not bother them , A crime is a crime in my opinion.. And the lack of response from the Police looking at the figures here angers me.
And Im sure it angers all bikers here. We are second-class citizens.
I see a stolen Bikes thread here from one of the 'Boys In Blue' stating he's biased against us, Bikers pay tax too to pay the wages of Police, we deserve the same attention as the 'suit' who gets robbed of his phone.. anybody seen a £1000.00 plus phone? and why do they see bike theft as petty, some of us take years to build our bikes. and the theft of one is like losing a limb... Then on Twitter I see a Policeman appealing to the public about a stolen crappy Police pushbike.. Refund me some taxes and Ill look out for your stolen bike Mr Policeman.. because you dont care about our bikes being stolen ,and close cases down without investigating them because they are too frequent, So is mugging! Go figure their mindset

 

[Mile195]

It's frustrating, I agree. But It just comes down to funding I think. The chances of recovering stolen bikes are, I believe, hopelessly low and there simply isn't the resources to investigate them. I think they focus on phone thefts and the like, because they involve crimes against the person to obtain - sometimes violent.

If someones bike got nicked from their shed in my street, I'd take a look at my security arrangements but it wouldn't make me feel unsafe. However, if someone got mugged for their phone outside my house I think I might feel differently. It's that risk of harm to members of the public in the latter scenario that I think makes it a priority.

Agreed, it's little consolation, but unfortunately until either the police are given more budget, or people stop nicking stuff, it's just the way things have to be...

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

The local facebook group where I am has an appeal for funding for a private security patrol van, manned by residents.

 

[fossyant]

It's budget, i'm afraid. The UK cops don't even have time to investigate when cyclists are run over by drivers, so a theft is nothing - they don't respond to house break ins or car thefts either,

Money !

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Don’t see the bias myself. My work vehicle has been broken into twice. I left the vehicle alone so they could fingerprint it. Pffft. They stifled a laugh at that CSI fantasy. On the second occasion there was a witness, but that was ignored.

The long and the short of it is, I have lost way more than £1k of kit, my insurance has gone up, so too has our area’s insurance. I have installed CCTV, but heard the local council yard was robbed and filmed the perpetrators, but they could not prove they nicked the stuff. At best they were trespassing. Honestly.

Our police force has been destroyed by the pen pushing politicians, so we can’t blame the boys in blue. Actually I support the poor souls who join our services.

 

[lane]

Personal experience of what I would regard as not great commitment to prosecuting those responsible for bike theft. But also a lot of other similar examples with other types of crime locally. As a result criminals are becoming bolder because they know they probably will get away with it . More police and funding seems to be the answer but someone will need to pay for it.

 

[lane]

The local facebook group where I am has an appeal for funding for a private security patrol van, manned by residents.

There was discussion of residents patrolling locally in my village and got as far as discussions with the policeI and I know that is in place quite local to me and elsewhere in the country.

 

[lane]

I have also posted on here examples of when police do prosecute the penalties must make them wonder why they bother.

 

[derrick]

If someones bike got nicked from their shed in my street, I'd take a look at my security arrangements but it wouldn't make me feel unsafe. However, if someone got mugged for their phone outside my house I think I might feel differently. It's that risk of harm to members of the public in the latter scenario that I think makes it a priority...

There are plenty of people getting mugged for there bikes.

 

[alimantado]

It's budget, i'm afraid. The UK cops don't even have time to investigate when cyclists are run over by drivers, so a theft is nothing - they don't respond to house break ins or car thefts either,

Money !

I didnt know the situation was so dire if they are not investigating house break-ins and Car theft then what is their worth!
... Tory voters hang your head in shame

 

[Drago]

Problem is, last time I checked none the of my bicycles had a "find my phone" app installed, a GPS internet tracker, internet connections, or a traceable IMEI number, the ability to ping on Wi-Fi hotspots as they travel through, by which they could be relatively easily traced and located (sure, bikes have frame numbers, but you have to find the bike first, and no bugger writes them down anyway) - there's a huge difference between not caring, any simply having more evidence/avenues of investigation available when a mobile phone goes missing.

Comparing the tracing and recovery of an inert and easily dismantled and disguised steel item with an electronically active device bristling with multiple means by which it can often be actively tracked and traced is laughable.

Plus of course, the value of mobile phone theft massively outweighs the value of bicycle theft, by dozens of millions of pounds each year - the feds simply don't have the resources to investigate everything down to the Nth degree, so they have no choice but to prioritise. The financial harm caused by one vastly outweighs the other, so in that sense its a simple economic question - this is why the theft of a Mars Bar from the corner shop doesn't receive the resource response as 5 pensioners tunnelling into a bank vault one weekend. Still, you complaining does please me at one level, as you're clearly happy for a vast hike in your council tax to pay for more policing resources. We haven't had this few coppers since the Eighties, and we had 15,000,000 less people in the country back then committing crimes.

Half the victims of crime complain that the other halves of the victims of crime are getting more/better service than they are. Either illustrate your rant with some substantive evidence, or don't bother. Cressida Dick isn't going to cancel all leave just to please you - hell, she doesn't have the resources to tackle knife crime and violence, so you're just going to have to suck it up.

 

[lane]

Even if you find the bike for sale on ebay prosecutions don't follow so not just about lack of tracability.

 

[derrick]

What i have seen lately is the police turn a blind eye. We had some gypsies dumping a load of rubbish on private land, They sat in there car for a while watching them then they drove of. Cost the guy who owned the land a fortune to clear it.