The Bike Theft Task Force booth at a Sunday Parkways event in July 2016.
(Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The leader of the Portland Police Police Bureau’s Bike Theft Task Force (BTTF) says the unit has lost its only source of funding and will have to significantly scale back its work for the foreseeable future.

Officers with the task force had been doing regular bike registration events in partnership with Portland Parks rangers over the past few months. Last week Officer Dave Sanders took to the BTTF Twitter account to make the news public: “We are sorry to have to cancel this and other planned events,” he wrote. “Funding for our bike theft program is currently being suspended. Though the police bureau sees the value of these community efforts, we are facing larger budget cuts within our bureau that prevent us from continuing.”[Read more…]

Window of Pedal Bike Tours on SW 2nd Avenue.
(Photo: Pedal Bike Tours/Instagram)

While Portland’s protests in the name of the murder of George Floyd and ongoing police brutality in America have gotten more peaceful in recent nights, several downtown bike shop owners are still recovering from thefts that happened last week.

We’re aware of over 30 bikes that have been stolen so far. Most of them were taken on Friday, May 29th when some people who were downtown during the protest smashed windows and took products from a number of stores. The hardest hit shops have been Bike Gallery on Southwest 10th and Salmon and Pedal Bike Tours on Southwest 2nd near Ankeny.[Read more…]

Tools of the trade. Notice the seat bags too.

A vanful of broken dreams. (Photos: PPB)

[Read more…]

Mr. Cunningham’s trike.
(Photo provided by Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office)

Someone stole a trike from a 101-year old man and the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office wants our help to get it back to him.

According to the Sheriff’s Office the trike was stolen Sunday night (5/3) from Chester Cunningham who lives near SE 74th and King Road in Milwaukie. The scooter is a red, E-Wheels EW 29 model. It has an electric front-hub motor. Cunningham told police thieves cut the chain and took it from his porch.

Cunningham told KPTV it’s his sole means of transportation and he can’t go shopping without it. [Read more…]

(Photo: PPB)

Earlier this month we shared that the leader of the Portland Police Bureau Bike Theft Task Force said we could “end bike theft overnight” if everyone registered their bikes online.

Now Task Force leader Officer Dave Sanders is putting u-locks where his mouth is.

Thanks to an ongoing partnership with Abus Locks, the Portland Bureau of Transportation and registration site Project 529, the Task Force is adding a new twist to their “U Lock U Rock!” program. Once live events like Sunday Parkways start up again, they’ll be doing more cable-lock-for-u-lock exchanges. For now, all you need is a phone and an internet connection. [Read more…]

Last month members of the Task Force joined with Milwaukie PD for a free bike registration event on the Springwater Corridor.
(Photos: Portland Police)

Bike thieves do not care about the pandemic. In fact, it’s probably encouraging them to steal more.

According to the Portland Police Bureau Bike Theft Task Force, bike theft in March was up 25% compared to last year. Task Force leader Officer Dave Sanders says it’s “very bad” out there right now.

The BTTF was launched five years ago this week. We haven’t reduced bike theft as much as we’d hoped, but the task force itself remains strong and is doing excellent work. While Portland is a leader in bike theft with about 10,000 bikes stolen each year (over one per hour), we are also a leader in recoveries. According to PPB data, they’ve recovered 30% more bikes so far this year than last. That’s $100,000 worth of stolen bikes back in the hands of their owners. The key? Registration.

“We could solve bike theft overnight if everyone would take a few minutes today to walk out to their garage and register their bikes,” Ofcr. Sanders shared with me this week.

Sanders is on the frontlines of the bike theft epidemic. As he scours the city looking for stolen bikes, he’s also been a victim himself. It happened back in January and it just happened again last week.[Read more…]

Screen grab from PPB Citizen Online Reporting site.

In a bid to make crime reporting more convenient and free up officers for other calls, the Portland Police Bureau announced this week they’ve expanded the types of crimes that can be reported online.

Along with identity theft, telephone scams, shoplifting, and other crimes, you can now use the PPB’s Citizen Online Reporting System to report a bicycle theft. The new system can be used if the value of your bicycle is below $10,000 and there are no known suspects.

Officer Dave Sanders, founder of the PPB Bike Theft Task Force, says it’s a welcome step forward. “Hopefully this will encourage more folks to report their stolen bikes,” he shared with me earlier this week. Ofcr. Sanders added that he references police reports daily in his ongoing battle against Portland’s rampant bike theft problem (they’ve already recovered over 50 bikes so far this year). “We just got a bike back for a guy this morning in spite of an absent serial number,” he shared. [Read more…]