Thousands of pounds worth of bikes were stolen across the city of Gloucester last year (2010), leading to a major police crackdown on bike theft involving the national online bike registration service, bikeregister.com.

Regular patrols are now being conducted by local officers from Gloucestershire Constabulary, especially in known hotspot areas. These patrols include bike checks, speaking to cycle owners about security, bike marking events and recommending the use of bikeregister.com to register bike ownership.

Cycle marking events have taken place recently at retail outlets and schools in the Quedgeley and Barton areas. Police have been helping shoppers and school children mark and register their bikes. This means that if the bike is ever lost or stolen and then recovered by police it can be easily identified and traced back to the owner.

PC Matt Hammond, of Gloucester City Safer Community Team, is seeking to reassure the public that the police are putting their resources into solving the problem. He said: “We have been doing more targeted patrols but our key message has been around security and we really do want to hammer this home.

“We have set up a new section of the Gloucestershire Constabulary website specifically designed to answer any security queries and we have been tagging bikes in the city to refer people to the information. Owners should visit the crime reduction pages of http://www.gloucestershire.police.uk for more information.”

PC Hammond continued: “The number of bike thefts in the city has been an issue in 2010 but we have been running large-scale operations in response to the upturn and they have been having a positive effect.”

For further press information and images contact: Angela Singleton, Press Officer for Selectamark. Mobile: 07905 623 819. Email: [email protected]

For further information and images contact: Jodie Fisher, Marketing Executive for Selectamark.

Phone: +44 (0)1689 487829
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @bikeregister