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Bike theft crisis as police forced to focus on violent crime (+ video)

Thieves “have become brazen, greedy and lazy” says senior cop due to easy pickings

Bike thefts are rising as police forces divert resources to tackle violent crime, according to a report on Telegraph.co.uk which claims that just 1 in 50 cases are being solved, according to Home Office data, with one senior police officer saying that thieves “have become brazen, greedy and lazy” due to the slim chance of being caught.

The newspaper says that according to victims, even when suspects have been identified or there is CCTV footage or witness or DNA evidence, time-pressed officers are unable to investigate thefts.

Its report comes on a day when footage emerged on social media of a gang stealing several bikes, including a Brompton, that had been locked to railings in London Fields, Hackney.

The video, captured by staff from a nearby café, shows a masked thief using an angle grinder to threaten a member of the public who tried to intervene.

According to the Telegraph, gangs of criminals are finding that stealing bikes en masse is less risky than engaging in other pursuits such as dealing drugs, partly because some police forces have disbanded units dedicated to fighting bike theft.

It highlights the case of Cambridge A&E doctor Michael Brooks, whose bike was stolen from outside a pharmacy where he had locked it up by someone who was described as having arrived on a “tatty” BMX bike, which he left behind.

Dr Brooks supplied police with the BMX bike so they could try and find a DNA match, as well as the name and address of the suspected thief, which had been given to him by someone who witnessed the theft and knew the person.

But when he followed the case up with officers the following week, they told him they had closed the case.

“They had got a DNA match from the BMX but had not been round to interview the suspect,” he said.

Last year, he has two bikes stolen from Cambridge North railway station but despite the bike racks there being covered by CCTV was told by Cambridgeshire Constabulary and British Transport Police that due to limits of, respectively, four hours and 14 hours on the time they can review such footage they could not devote sufficient resources to investigate the theft.*

He asked Greater Anglia, which operates the station, if he could obtain a copy of the footage but was told they were unable to do so because it would breach GDPR rules, which consider CCTV footage to be personal information.

He said: “Cambridge's conviction rates are less than one per cent. At that rate, and at £200 per bike, it is a crime that pays well.

“I speak for a lot of cyclists who feel we are on our own. We don't dare take the law into our own hands, because you would be done for an offence against the person.”

Superintendent James Sutherland, of Cambridgeshire Constabulary said that due to budget cuts and focusing on violent crime, the force had been unable to prioritise bike theft, although he added that a new approach was being adopted.

“I made a decision before Christmas that this was not sustainable and there needed to be a correction,” he explained. “We are not going to eliminate bike crime, but just because you can't eliminate it doesn't mean you cannot get a grip on it.

“The loss of focus means cycle thieves have become brazen, greedy and lazy,” he added. “They are doing more of it and doing it more openly. That’s why we intend to get a grip on it.”

As we pointed out on road.cc in an article last year, railway stations remain hotspots for bike thefts, and particularly ones that are popular with commuters and are less busy during the day, enabling thieves to carry out their crime with minimal prospect of being disturbed.

> Great Britain's worst railway station for cycle theft named

A spokesperson from British Transport Police, which disbanded its specialist bike crime unit last year, told the Telegraph: “Unfortunately, bikes remain a popular target for opportunistic thieves. Officers will use all reasonable means at their disposal when investigating such crimes. This includes reviewing CCTV where reasonable and talking with witnesses.

“In order to allow officers to prioritise the most serious crimes, which pose the most risk to the public, they use a screening process when investigating low-level crime such as bike thefts.

“There has been a national rise in violent crime, and it is right that we prioritise the deployment of our officers based on this to keep people safe,” they added.

* Editor’s note: We are aware of cases in the past in which it has been pointed out to police that CCTV tapes do not need to be reviewed for their entire duration in order to identify the moment a bike was stolen, assuming it is clearly visible on the video.

If the bike was stolen in an eight-hour window, say, going to the four-hour point will show whether it was taken before or after that point.

Then, by going forward or backward on the video, as they case may be, in decreasing time intervals, the moment the theft took place can be ascertained in a matter of minutes, without having to watch the whole footage.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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10 comments

Avatar
Spiregrain | 4 years ago
1 like

It does not in any way breach GDPR to disclose the footage. Owner has a legitimate interest, there is no unwarranted prejudice to the thief, and there are exemptions covering prevention and detection of crime. Police are just using it as another excuse for inaction. make your request then complain to ICO when refused.

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cycle.london | 4 years ago
1 like

The old bill aren't really interested in cycling or cyclists at all.  But no one should be surprised by this.  The role of the police is to implement and enforce policy as decided by Parliament.  The much-vaunted 'independence' and 'impartiality' is a myth.   Right now - and this since 1979 when the power of the executive first started to rival and then eclipse that of the legislature - policy is to favour petrol-powered means of transport.  This is done to bolster the finances of the people who pay for the Tories' election campaigns.   It won't change anytime soon.

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ex_terra | 4 years ago
1 like

The police have never been interested in bike crime.

I had 2 bikes nicked 12 years ago when there were more cops. The bikes were put into a van by a tradesman working for the company literally next door to the police station. 

Despite repeatedly calling and going to the police station they couldn't be bothered to get off their backsides and go next door.

Numbers are an issue but what's equally obvious is the complete lack of leadership, organisation and common sense in the service as a whole. Getting rid of the significant duplication in management structures arising from "local" forces would be a good start.

 

 

Avatar
brooksby | 4 years ago
6 likes

It seems odd that the police are talking about how they need to prioritise violent crime - to the extent that they really won't bother about burglaries, bike theft, etc (any form of property theft or damage, basically) - and yet I'm sure if I put it out to the fabled Man (or Woman) on the Clapham Omnibus, they would agree that threatening someone with an angle grinder definitely counts as "violent crime"...

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eburtthebike | 4 years ago
8 likes

So our "government" if I might dignify such a shower of s**t with that undeserved definition, wants lots more people to ride bikes, but they won't do anything to stop bike thefts.  One of the reasons people don't ride is the fear of having their bike stolen, so just like everything else about them, they say one thing and do the opposite.

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Jetmans Dad | 4 years ago
5 likes

Re: the last paragraph ... there's an algorithm for that!

The police need a local maths or computer science teacher to come in and demonstrate a binary search. That would allow them to isolate the moment of a crime happening in hours of CCTV footage in very short order, especially if it is a digital file with instant access to any point in the footage. 

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to Jetmans Dad | 4 years ago
2 likes

They just need someone able to think.

Sorry, I don't believe cops are too dim to consider a simple bisection sarch - you hardly need a computer-science qualification for that to occur to you, it's an intuitively-obvious idea when looking for anything among anything in some sort of sequential order.  And aren't they all supposed to be over-intellectual politically-correct graduates these days?  At least that's what the gammons keep telling me.

The problem is presumably overstretch due to shortage of staff and resources (like everything else in this country after all the years of austerity), so they pretend to be dim to find a pretext not to devote any time to this crime at all.

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Rik Mayals unde... replied to FluffyKittenofTindalos | 4 years ago
1 like

Whilst I am fully aware of the cuts to police, and I used to know lots of bobbies (as I was in the dim past a police volunteer), the current crop of officers, whilst stretched, are in my experience, a lazy bunch. It is easier to complain about being overstretched than to actually get off their backsides and do some police work. After working with the police for a great many years, I have lost all respect for the current bobbies. Even when I have presented them with all the evidence they need, including high def footage, they still choose not to act, using the old chestnut "It's not in the public interest to prosecute" etc etc etc......

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cycle.london replied to Rik Mayals underpants | 4 years ago
0 likes
biker phil wrote:

Whilst I am fully aware of the cuts to police, and I used to know lots of bobbies (as I was in the dim past a police volunteer), the current crop of officers, whilst stretched, are in my experience, a lazy bunch. It is easier to complain about being overstretched than to actually get off their backsides and do some police work. After working with the police for a great many years, I have lost all respect for the current bobbies. Even when I have presented them with all the evidence they need, including high def footage, they still choose not to act, using the old chestnut "It's not in the public interest to prosecute" etc etc etc......

I've been watching quite a few youtube videos over the past week or so, of police challenging photographers who are taking pictures in public.  If the idiotic prats in these clips are at all representative of the forces as a whole, then we're in trouble.

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MTB Refugee | 4 years ago
6 likes

Cycle theft is no longer a crime, it's been legalised by stealth.

If you no longer investigate, enforce or attempt to resolve a crime, then it is no longer a illegal.

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