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Number of bike thefts in York doubles (From York Press)
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Number of bike thefts in York doubles
12:00pm Friday 29th July 2011 in News
Exclusive By Jennifer Bell, jennifer.bell@thepress.co.uk
Bicycle crime has risen dramatically in York in recent months
BIKE thefts in York have rocketed to more than 2,000 a year – and only a fraction of the crimes are being solved.
New figures obtained by The Press show an average of six bikes a day are being stolen in the city – nearly twice as many as in 2009/10. But for every 14 bikes taken, only one is ever recovered.
Police say many of the thefts are “opportunist” and have again urged people to secure their bikes in the city centre.
In January, police said they expected bike thefts in 2010/11 to reach 1,600 – up from 1,120 in 2009/10. But statistics released to The Press show the figure between May 2010 and 2011 actually hit 2,173.
The figures, revealed under the Freedom of Information Act, also show the city’s worst hot-spots for bike crime.
Guildhall and Clifton were worst, with 386 and 200 thefts respectively, followed by Micklegate on 190 and Heworth on 188.
Hull Road (182), Westfield (139) and Huntington and New Earswick (130) were next on the list.
A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: “We are aware of this increase in the theft of pedal cycles and have a number of ongoing operations to reduce these thefts, which are often opportunistic.
“We encourage people to help themselves becoming the victims of crime by securing their cycles with approved locks and ensuring that they are stored in a locked building when not in use.
“If owners have had their bikes security coded, this means that we are far more likely to be able to return them once recovered.”
The figures show only 70 people faced proceedings in relation to the 2,173 bikes stolen over the past 12 months, with 65 being charged and five being cautioned.
Police say they have worked with the Safer York Partnership to deter cycle thieves through crime prevention initiatives such as the Red Hand campaign. It sees tracker systems being secretly attached to bikes which are randomly displayed at cycle racks throughout the city and which allow them to be traced if they are stolen.
Cyclists in York also now have a dedicated cycle hub station next to Lendal Bridge, which offers secure parking for cyclists.
It was funded jointly by City of York Council and Cycling City York and is run by the Bike Rescue Project.
Bernie Cullen, who runs the project and sits on a strategy group to prevent bikes being stolen, said her main advice was for cyclists to get a good lock, adding: “If you buy a cheap lock, you may as well tie a bow on a bike.”
She said another cycling hub in the city centre which was able to open later than 6.30pm, the closing time of the Lendal Bridge hub, would be beneficial.
She also encouraged people to have their bikes tagged under the city-wide Operation Spoke, saying an employee at Bike Rescue, Jamie Atkin, 21, had had his bike stolen – and later recovered – after having his cycle marked.
Action demanded to thwart thieves
ONE cyclist who knows how quickly bike thieves can strike says he believes more needs to be done to thwart them.
Michael Thompson, 26, of Wilberfoss, left his bike locked at a rack outside York Station last month, but when he returned, he found the lock had been broken and his cycle was gone.
British Transport Police checked CCTV footage of the area, but Michael said he had been told the crime happened out of the cameras’ sight.
By chance, he discovered his distinctive bright pink bike a month later, abandoned outside the Oxfam bookshop on Micklegate, but he said more needed to be done to thwart thieves.
“When I spoke to police, they said finding my bike would be like finding a needle in a haystack because so many are stolen,” he said.
“I think York is quite old-fashioned when it comes to bikes and bike safety. You pretty much leave your bike chained to a metal pole, but in other cities there are plenty of secure bike parks where you pay to leave your bike in a safe place.”
Police are reminding cyclists in York to register their bikes. Since being launched in January 2010, Operation Spoke has marked almost 10,000 bikes with a security number and registered them with the national register, Immobilise.
This can be done at the Bike Rescue Project or at regular Operation Spoke events held throughout the city.
Keeping a tag on cycle thieves
YORK likes to pride itself on being a cycling city.
Unfortunately, it’s also in danger of getting a reputation as a city of cycle thieves.
Bike thefts have soared in the last year. On average, six bikes are now being stolen every day – more than double the level of a year ago. For every 14 bikes taken, only one is ever recovered.
Guildhall ward – ie the city centre – is the worst hot-spot, followed by Clifton, Micklegate and Heworth.
If there is any good news, it is that there is no evidence of organised gangs of cycle thieves at work. Police stress that many of the thefts are opportunist.
Which means that at least there is something we can do about it.
Police have a number of ongoing operations to tackle the increasing number of thefts.
But bike owners can and should be doing more to protect their property. Some bikes, after all, are very expensive machines.
It is not enough simply to lock your bike. If you use a cheap lock, says Bernie Cullen of Bike Rescue, you might as well have tied on a nice bow inviting a thief to steal your bike.
So use a good-quality lock to deter the opportunists – and make sure that your bike is tagged. That way, even if it does get stolen, at least there is a decent chance you’ll get it back.
Comments(36)
spiritofyork
says...
12:45pm Fri 29 Jul 11
Ignatius Lumpopo
says...
12:57pm Fri 29 Jul 11
Which'll be nice.
b17bomber
says...
1:10pm Fri 29 Jul 11
b17bomber
says...
1:13pm Fri 29 Jul 11
b17bomber
says...
1:14pm Fri 29 Jul 11
spiritofyork
says...
1:25pm Fri 29 Jul 11
BTW fellas, just because bikes get nicked doesn't mean they stay off teh street - just that they don't belong to the owner any more. Keep dreaming...
Gail_Forswins
says...
1:30pm Fri 29 Jul 11
He has been given a quote of over £100 for his new brakes so there's obviously a nice grey industry in nicking to order spares.
hobo180
says...
1:58pm Fri 29 Jul 11
Bo diddly
says...
2:12pm Fri 29 Jul 11
Woody Mellor
says...
2:21pm Fri 29 Jul 11
liberal24
says...
3:02pm Fri 29 Jul 11
Lock 1 - Put through the main Frame of the bike.
Lock 2 - put through the front wheel and main frame.
These arent "Gang Crinimals", there just punks who see a crappy lock, or even a bike which is not locked. -> your bike will not get nicked if you use two locks, at worst your saddle or mudguards will go.
The reason why the police cant retreive them is because it is probably in the river ouse, throusands of bikes get dumped after there nicked because there scared of gettin seen.
And to be honest we should be glad its bikes not cars or houses. In Manchester an average of 34 cars get stolen a day.
York has no car crime reports this month!!!!!
Understandbly York is one of the safest cities around,
So dont make it easy use TWO LOCK!
thats all i have to say on the matter.#
liberal24
says...
3:06pm Fri 29 Jul 11
But having a Hooded Flat Peaked Gangsta Put a Loaded Pistol to your Face and tell you to get out of the car or hell shoot you.
York has Minor problems, but at least its just bikes, not cars or houses.
TooRecked
says...
3:30pm Fri 29 Jul 11
It just means that instead of being ridden by their sensible owners they will be ridden by the sort of people who nick bikes or buy stolen bile so they won't give a monkeys about the law.
If anything it will be worse. Duh!
Mr Udigawa
says...
3:35pm Fri 29 Jul 11
liberal24
says...
3:40pm Fri 29 Jul 11
A couple of punch-ups maybe, youths trying to look like bad-men, maybe.
But when was the last Armed Bank Robbery in York. - Last Gang Shoot-out - Last Gang Killing - Armed car Robbery. - Armed House robbery - Even Stabbing!
Like I said before, if you think York is unsafe think again, York is one of the Safest Cities.
When you get Kids shooting each other because there wearing the wrong colour, or in the wrong neighbourhood, then you can say York has a Gang problem.
When you get cars Jacked with loaded Guns, you can say York is un-safe.
York has no gang-problem.
idlehousewife
says...
3:47pm Fri 29 Jul 11
UsernameNotAvailable
says...
4:14pm Fri 29 Jul 11
Pete the Brickie
says...
4:26pm Fri 29 Jul 11
In January, police said they expected bike thefts in 2010/11 to reach 1,600 – up from 1,120 in 2009/10. But statistics released to The Press show the figure between May 2010 and 2011 actually hit 2,173.
Going by this statement we'd be better off employing the Pakistan cricket team to police York, they're far better at predicting spread bets than North Yorkshire Police. Hopefully they haven't put any of next years budget on at William Hills based their previous predictions, as they've blown it now. At least if they were a few under they could have gone out, nicked a few themselves and won the bet.
“When I spoke to police, they said finding my bike would be like finding a needle in a haystack because so many are stolen,” he said.
I'm not surprised the police haven't got time to find missing items of two wheeled personal transport if they are busy responding to calls about stolen haystacks with missing items of sewing equipment in them. Far be it for me to disagree with officer who made this statement as he obviously has experience in both crimes. But given the working at height regulations, the fact that police officers need to fill in a risk assesment before climbing into bed, and the typical height of a haystack stolen or otherwise which first has to be found and surrounded with crime tape before locating the needle. How on earth is that easier than finding stolen bikes?
liberal24
says...
4:46pm Fri 29 Jul 11
But having a Hooded Flat Peaked Gangsta Put a Loaded Pistol to your Face and tell you to get out of the car or hell shoot you.
York has Minor problems, but at least its just bikes, not cars or houses.”
brummiebob
says...
6:07pm Fri 29 Jul 11
brummiebob
says...
6:14pm Fri 29 Jul 11
Garrowby Turnoff
says...
6:30pm Fri 29 Jul 11
What's needed is a SatNav tracker fitted so you can trace the bikes whereabouts.
liberal24
says...
7:36pm Fri 29 Jul 11
whats wrong with people!
use two locks and it wont get nicked and obviously chain it to something!¬
Guy Fawkes
says...
7:39pm Fri 29 Jul 11
Reasonable precautions, yes. Of course you shouldn't leave your property totally unsecured. But neither should you have to put up with the cost and inconvenience of Fort Knox-style security, either. Part of the reason I give 40% of my wages to George Osborne is to employ a police force to catch criminals. If they can't catch robbers, perhaps they should spend rather less time nicking people for putting their bin out on the wrong day and other PC, victimless crimes, and more of it catching real criminals.
But if we are going to have to 'help ourselves', then make it legal for us to do so in a way that'll really work, i.e. exacting whatever retribution we like against criminals without fear of prosecution ourselves.
fruitloop
says...
8:39pm Fri 29 Jul 11
AnotherPointofView
says...
10:22pm Fri 29 Jul 11
How come in 2007 the Press ran this article: http://www.yorkpress
.co.uk/news/1640760.
New_drive_to_crack_d
own_on_bike_theft_/
This reported that 5 per day were being stolen. That's not double. Whilst any increase in crime is bad, let's keep things in perspective.
piaggio
says...
10:47pm Fri 29 Jul 11
where is the peddalin pillock anyway??
Pete the Brickie
says...
11:05pm Fri 29 Jul 11
AnotherPointofView , York says...
10:22pm Fri 29 Jul 11
The title of this article is "Number of bike thefts in York doubles". The number of thefts is over 2,000 a year. This is roughly 5.5 per day.
How come in 2007 the Press ran this article:
That's not double. Whilst any increase in crime is bad, let's keep things in perspective.
Not too long after that York University had a new security centre built with improved cctv which eliminated a large number of cycle thefts there. The police then put an article in the press claiming credit for halving cycle thefts in York and virtually stopping it at the Uni. I commented at the time how the uni wasted all that money on the security centre when all along the police could have stopped the thefts for free. Laterly of course the thefts have increased as the totally unorganised oppertunist thieves equipped with heavy duty bolt croppers and dewalt angle grinders moved elsewhere unopposed by the police.
pedalling paul
says...
8:49am Sat 30 Jul 11
/read/gps-bicycle-tr
acker-launches/01030
1 for info about the spylamp GPS tracker which masquerades as a working back light.
I use three different patterns of lock on my utility bike.
York bobbies have a no. of sting bikes fitted with a different style of GPS tracker, as several thieves have already discovered to their cost.
DYLANESQ
says...
8:54am Sat 30 Jul 11
Digeorge
says...
9:44am Sat 30 Jul 11
Well, I suppose it is Summer, the kids are growing, need another bike, can't afford it, claim on insurance, can't afford a lock so go an knick one instead that looks the right size etc etc.
Somebody can come an knick my two with great pleasure as I would like a new one too!
Maybe I will just leave it outside my house and somebody will come and take it like a neighbour has done or leave the garage door open (which somebody has done)!
allthingsconsidered
says...
10:07pm Sun 31 Jul 11
Magicman!
says...
2:09am Mon 1 Aug 11
Hmmm... maybe it's the anti-bike brigade (possibly led by Mike Usherwood) going round nicking all the bikes and dumping them!!
Markiet
says...
5:07pm Mon 1 Aug 11
And I do pay tax, i drive my car twice a day mon-fri!!
hula
says...
12:24pm Tue 2 Aug 11
12:36pm Fri 29 Jul 11
"People are trying to nick bikes, any bikes, until they find that pedalling pratt's one.”
Yes perhaps the thieves are stealing as many bikes as possible hoping one day they might hit lucky and the peddaling pratts bike might be one of them!!
Fred the Shred says...
12:36pm Fri 29 Jul 11