Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Back to news
news
Crime & Legal
Reported bike theft at 10-year lowBike thief

Reported bike theft at 10-year low

But how many thefts are actually being reported?
by Alex Bowden
Tue, Aug 09, 2016 17:02
7

According to police statistics, bike theft dropped by 25.2 per cent from 2011 to 2016. Numbers have fallen from 115,902 thefts in 2011/12 to 86,616 in 2015-16, although it should be noted that a large proportion of thefts are not reported.

Devon and Cornwall has seen the most significant drop in reported theft over that period, from 1,607 to 853 (46.92%). Merseyside saw the biggest rise from 1,895 to 1,951 (2.96%).

Unsurprisingly, the City of London remains the worst affected area in terms of number of bikes stolen per thousand residents, albeit down to 33.95 in 2015/16 from 56.67 in 2011/12. Cambridgeshire is second in 2015/16 with 4.34 reported thefts per thousand residents and Humberside third with 2.33. Dyfed-Powys in contrast recorded just 0.33.

road.cc’s Bike Locking Bible

John Moss, who has used the data to compile a stolen bike study at stolen-bikes.co.uk, has been campaigning for several years to get bike theft data into public hands. He told BikeBiz that improvements would hopefully mean more people sticking with cycling in the long term.

"With the news that bike theft has now dropped to its lowest levels in ten years the trade can hopefully look forward to an uptick in those staying in the saddle – 25 percent of bike-theft victims give up cycling."

He also said it was important for police forces and the cycling community to continue with efforts that have led to the decrease – “whether it's making bikes unattractive to thieves through marking and securing bikes properly or helping get bikes recovered and reducing the demand for stolen bikes."

Figures from The Crime in England and Wales Survey has led stolen-bikes.co.uk to conclude that 71 per cent of bike thefts are not reported. This would mean that the total number of bike thefts in 2015/16 was around 296,000.

police
Bike theft
John Moss
stolen-bikes.co.uk
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

Add new comment

7 comments

Avatar
leaway2 | 8 years ago
0 likes

"Unsurprisingly, the City of London remains the worst affected area in terms of number of bikes stolen per thousand residents"

Why  Unsurprisingly? As it is based on thefts per thousand residents. Does this mean City of London residents are thieving scumbags?

Avatar
Mr. Sheep replied to leaway2 | 8 years ago
1 like

leaway2 wrote:

"Unsurprisingly, the City of London remains the worst affected area in terms of number of bikes stolen per thousand residents"

Why  Unsurprisingly? As it is based on thefts per thousand residents. Does this mean City of London residents are thieving scumbags?

I assume it's unsurprising because there are very, very few residents in the City of London (it was only about 7,000 a few years ago - there's a few more residences which have popped up since then so it's probably a touch higher now, but still one of the lowest resident populations of any borough). There's a huge daytime population and thousands of cycling journeys passing through or parking within the City, so the rate-per-resident is always going to look bad.

There's also plenty of on-street bike parking around the place, and it's not uncommon to see plenty of relatively high-value bikes parked outside. Between these two factors, I'm not at all surprised that it leads on that particular statistic.

Avatar
leaway2 replied to Mr. Sheep | 8 years ago
0 likes

Mr. Sheep wrote:

leaway2 wrote:

"Unsurprisingly, the City of London remains the worst affected area in terms of number of bikes stolen per thousand residents"

Why  Unsurprisingly? As it is based on thefts per thousand residents. Does this mean City of London residents are thieving scumbags?

I assume it's unsurprising because there are very, very few residents in the City of London (it was only about 7,000 a few years ago - there's a few more residences which have popped up since then so it's probably a touch higher now, but still one of the lowest resident populations of any borough). There's a huge daytime population and thousands of cycling journeys passing through or parking within the City, so the rate-per-resident is always going to look bad.

There's also plenty of on-street bike parking around the place, and it's not uncommon to see plenty of relatively high-value bikes parked outside. Between these two factors, I'm not at all surprised that it leads on that particular statistic.

Aaah OK. Thanks 3

Avatar
leaway2 replied to Mr. Sheep | 8 years ago
0 likes

.

Avatar
Bill H | 8 years ago
1 like

I have had three bikes stolen since 1996 and my experience is that it comes down which Police Officer handles the case. Twice I had no useful response, but on the third occasion I found the bike on Gumtree and an officer from the Plaistow BTP station recovered it for me.

So it's not fair to write off all police as uninterested.

Avatar
Jimnm | 8 years ago
0 likes

I suppose the cops look upon it that, that's another feckin nuisance off the road. They don't give a feck if the truth be known! 

Feckin wankers 7

Avatar
kenyond | 8 years ago
1 like

I reported my bike stolen and the police said they most likely wont find it so claim on my insurance...

Latest Comments