What the heck is going on? Seems like every time I log on there are more stolen bikes to publish. There are 107 listed so far and I’m averaging about one a day for the past 2 months…and that’s only what gets listed here! There are surely many other bikes stolen throughout the city every day.
The good news is that the listings are working. We’re re-united bikes with their owners just by staying vigilant and keeping our eyes peeled. On that note, I’ve just sent out the first Stolen Bike Digest to 46 subscribers that includes almost all the local bike shops. So the number of eyeballs looking out for stolen bikes is growing.
I also think the sheer number of listings and several recent recovery stories have helped put the bike theft issue on the radar screen of more people. One recent story got noticed by KATU-TV and ran on the 11 o’clock news.
Last week I got called into a meeting with the Lieutenant of the Portland Police Traffic Division. He wanted to know how the Police could work with us to help prevent theft and do a better job of recovering them once they’re stolen.
The first step will be a bike theft prevention resource on the web. PDOT is also collaborating on this resource and we’re meeting with the Lieutenant again next week to present an outline of what content should be included. The next step will be to develop some sort of registry or database. It’s no secret that my listings are very basic and I’d like to make them into a form with required fields and ultimately sync that information with the police records. But this would take two things I don’t have; programming skills and money.
So for now, I’ll focus on putting together some solid bike theft prevention information that will include web links, lock recommendations, etc… To kick things off, I’ve published an article that was sent to me by a local veteran bike shop employee who has ridden for over 20 years and has never had a bike stolen.
If you have tips, lock recommendations, web resources, or anything about bike theft prevention you’d like to share, please do so below. Your input will help develop this upcoming resource.