:: Cycle Crime – More Than Just The Theft of Pedal Cycles

The fourth annual Cycle Crime Conference, hosted by BikeRegister, the national cycle database, in association with British Transport Police (BTP), took place in Birmingham on Tuesday, 26th June.

Following on from last year's hugely successful event, officers from 37 Police Forces registered for this one-day cycle crime conference, along with key partners from the cycling, retail and security industries.

The theme for this year's conference was ‘More Than Just The Theft of Pedal Cycles’ with speakers highlighting innovative partnership working to tackle bike crime across the UK, as well as the numerous cycle crime reduction and bike marking initiatives being undertaken nationally.

Around 150 delegates got the chance to hear about successful operations to reduce cycle theft and share best practice on cycle crime solutions.

Andy Gregory, Former Police Sergeant from West Midlands Police chaired the event, which also featured the 2018 Cycle Crime Awards ceremony (winners listed below).

There were presentations from a number of guest speakers including Supt Mark Cleland, the new national bike crime lead at British Transport Police, who delivered a novel twist to the inspirational ‘Starfish’ story by saying ‘everyone can make a difference’ in the fight against bike crime.

Crimestoppers’ Emily Van Der Lely spoke of the importance of their work to prevent crime involving young people, and about the collaboration they have with Road Safety Partnership Gloucestershire which involves bike marking. A joint video on ‘How To Mark Your Bike’ featuring national mountain bike champion Cara Murray was produced to promote the use of BikeRegister.

PC Daniel Holdsworth from Merseyside Police highlighted the good work being done by his team to send unclaimed bikes from police stores to hurricane victims in the Caribbean; and renowned criminologist Martin Gill, gave a fascinating insight into the criminal mind.

PC Pete Ormond and PC Sean Murphy from West Midlands Police gave delegates an update on the successful Operation Magpie (established in 2012), which is reuniting stolen bikes with their owners on an almost weekly basis and marking any unmarked bikes with BikeRegister. PC Ormond explained that the operation’s success depends on working with organisations such as Safer Travel, local universities and schools, second hand bike shops and even food delivery service Deliveroo.

Sgt Matt Coe of the Met Police spoke of the cycle crime reduction initiatives that are trapping bike thieves in London; while PCSOs Karen Roberts and Lynn Peck of MPS Tower Hamlets were proud to announce that they had recovered more than 200 stolen bikes. The dedicated duo check each of the bikes on BikeRegister to verify ownership, and reunite many of the bikes with their real owners.

Catching organised crime groups with the help of BikeRegister, and using community impact statements (which allow a community to say how a crime has affected them when the case goes to court) was highlighted by Sgt Nigel Ashworth of BTP.

Meanwhile, Nick Roach, Police Liaison Officer for SelectaDNA, talked about the new SelectaDNA Tagging and Defence Sprays being used by the Met and other forces to tackle the serious problem of moped-enabled crime. Offences including mobile phone snatches are also carried out on bikes. The DNA spray technology, along with the use of other tactics, has helped the Met reduce moped-enabled crime in London by 38.5% (Feb to May 2018).

James Brown, BikeRegister MD, rounded the day off with an update on the latest news from BikeRegister, which included the fact that the database recently hit the 750,000 bike registration landmark.

He also spoke about new technology being offered by BikeRegister, including details of the Police App that makes the registration of bikes easier and enables recovered and stolen bikes to be checked quicker.

James also presented the 2018 Cycle Crime Awards, which paid tribute to the hard work carried out by police forces and partners using BikeRegister to fight bike crime.

2018 Cycle Crime Awards winners:

• West Midlands Police for Operation Magpie, a sustained cycle crime initiative using BikeRegister
• British Transport Police for their commitment to cycle crime through the Lock It, Mark It communications campaign
• MPS Tower Hamlets for the most recoveries of stolen bikes using BikeRegister.
• Police Scotland for reducing bike crime through partnership working with the local council, Sustrans & second-hand bike shops in Edinburgh.

James concluded: “This year’s conference explored the theme of partnership working to tackle bike crime and highlighted the excellent work being done by so many of our delegates. BikeRegister will continue to engage with our valued partners from law enforcement, insurers and retailers and will shortly be announcing an exciting new partnership. We are thrilled with the success of our fourth Cycle Crime Conference and are grateful to the many police forces and industry partners who attended.”

Note to editors

More details on the work carried out by the 2018 Cycle Crime Award winners are available.

BikeRegister is the UK’s national cycle database and the leading online bicycle identification and registration initiative aiming to reduce cycle theft, identify stolen bikes and assist in owner recovery. BikeRegister is used by every UK Police Force and is the preferred bike marking system of the Metropolitan Police Service and British Transport Police.
 

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

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