London’s new Cycling Commissioner Andrew Gilligan has met with members of the BikeRegister team to discuss the importance of bike marking as an effective means to deter cycle theft.

After the meeting, Gilligan had his own bike marked and registered by BikeRegister’s Sales Director James Brown.

BikeRegister is the preferred bike marking product for the Metropolitan Police Service and is the UK’s leading online bicycle identification and registration initiative aiming to reduce cycle theft, identify stolen bikes and assist in owner recovery. Over 48,000 bikes have been marked and registered onto BikeRegister by the MPS since June 2010.

Following increased bike marking events in 2012 in two London ‘hotspot’ areas there was a 44% bike theft reduction reported by officers in Chiswick; and a 45% reduction in cycle thefts in Hackney over a specific period.

Gilligan said: “I had a bike stolen in London a couple of years ago but had no chance of having it recovered as it wasn’t marked. Police recover many bikes during their operations and if a bike has no identification marking on it, officers have no way of knowing who it belongs to.”

He concluded: “I would like to see thousands more bikes marked in London in order to deter cycle theft, which in turn will help to ensure the continued rise of cycling in the Capital.”

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

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