EDITORAMIR KHAN | TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022 | THE VOICE 7 Specialinvestigation More cyclists, fewer bike thefts Registration reduces stolen bikes during pandemic, data shows = By AMIRKHAN Vancouver cyclist found his stolen bike for sale on Craigslist. Accompanied by police officers, the owner confronted the seller, only to be advised by police that he was legally unable to seize the bike because the serial number had been “blasted off.” The owner was offered the bike back, albeit for half of its asking price. “T had my bike registered on Proj- ect 529 linked to the serial number,” the frustrated owner wrote on Reddit, referring to North America’s largest crowd-sourced bike registry aimed at combatting theft. Since 2006, the Vancouver Police Department has reported an increase in bike thefts in the Vancouver area, up 40 per cent. The thefts amount to over 2,000 bikes each year, roughly equating to nine bikes stolen per day. Retired VPD constable, Rob Brunt, recognized the issue of bike theft in Vancouver over 20 years ago when working out of a storeroom housing stolen property seized by police. “They have this machine - it holds 500 bikes - it goes up two and a half stories and it was packed, there wasn't a space empty,” Brunt said. “And they had another 200 bikes on the ground.” While searching for a solution to consolidate the seized bikes before they were taken to auction, Brunt met Jay Allard, former Microsoft Xbox co-founder and Project 529 CEO. The online bike registry quickly gained traction after being adopted by the VPD, with Vancouver’s annual Bike-to-Work Week during Oct. 2015. Over 1,500 bikes were registered in a five-day period. “A year later, our bike theft was already down 30 per cent.” More cyclists hit the road during pandemic According to the Vancouver Police Foundation, bike sales and ridership have increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to the tune of 300 and 400 per cent respec- tively. Brunt feared the progress that was being made of keeping bike thefts down was about to be reversed. “We're still down 40 per cent even with the increased ridership,” Brunt said. “I thought this was going to be bad, all the good work we've done would be “Within two minutes I found another of the Const. Rob Brunt (retired) at a Project 529 registration event on Granville Island. PHoTo COURTESY ROB BRUNT, 529 GARAGE to provide additional funding in order to increase ridership, by taking the impact of bike thefts into consid- eration when introducing infrastruc- ture packages. Thefts a barrier to bike ridership Vancouver based, HUB Cycling Association, a cycling advocacy group claims it’s working to remove bike theft as a barrier to ridership via community outreach and lobbying with local municipalities. “First and foremost, we help prevent bike theft by advocating for better end-of-trip facilities,” Rianna Fiorante, marketing manager at HUB Cycling Association, said via email. “We work with TransLink and building developers to facilitate this.” Fiorante added that the organiza- tion continues to encourage cyclists to register with Project 529 and runs marketing campaigns to educate the public on using better bike locks. The majority of stolen bikes recovered by police results in only a fraction of bikes returned to their rightful wiped out.” bikes that I had had owners. HUB The major " claims “chronic challenge facing stolen. under-reporting” Project 529 and — ALISTAIR BARRETT, MANAGER as a contributing OBSESSION E-BIKES law enforcement are securing the funds to fight bike theft. “It’s super difficult, especially in this ‘defund the police’ atmosphere,” Brunt said. Project 529 currently charges Vancouver Police a $7,000 licensing fee in order to access bike theft data. While the Vancouver Police Foun- dation has continued to award grants to combat bike theft by helping pay for Project 529’s services, Brunt said other police forces haven't been as fortunate. “We saved the city just about $3.5 million in bike thefts.” Brunt has since lobbied the provincial and federal governments factor, with serial numbers rarely being recorded by owners, along with “error-prone” safe guarding systems across the region. Brunt said less than five in 10 people reported having their bike stolen when Vancouver Police first adopted the Project 529 app, adding a report must be filed with both the local police and the registry sepa- rately. Tip led owner cyclist to stolen bikes “Now, we're averaging probably 60 per cent.” Alistair Barrett, store manager at North Vancouver based Obses- sion E-Bikes, had his four bikes, 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 Bike Thefts Vancouver 2010 - 2021 2010 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Projected | Actuals While bike theft projections continue to increase, actual figures have decreased since 2015, coinciding with the adop- tion of 529 Garage in Vancouver. D474 COURTESY ROB BRUNT, 529 GARAGE including one eBike, stolen from his garage in August 2021. The theft prompted Barrett to register his bikes with Project 529 and retro- actively declared them stolen. The thieves in question, left their own bike on Barrett’s property. “About two or three days after these bikes were stolen, I got an email from somebody saying, he had just seen a bike, which he thought was one of my bikes,” Barrett said. After receiving a photo confirma- tion, the tip led Barrett to Vancou- ver's downtown east side, using the bike the thieves had abandoned earlier. However, his bike was gone and has never been recovered. “T thought, well, I’m in downtown on the east side, I might as well just look around since I’m down here anyway.” “Within two minutes I found another of the bikes that I had had stolen.” With the help of police, Barrett was able to recover one of his miss- ing bikes. “A couple of weeks later, I got a call from another friend who was also on [Project 529], who had noticed that the police had made a public report of things that had been discovered at a chop shop.” Among the discovered items were Barrett’s remaining bikes, which he was able to recover via police. Like Barrett, the police often rely on public reports by members of the community to recover stolen bikes. On Dec. 1, 2021, the VPD issued a press release, which announced the discovery of high-end bikes, which were found on a rooftop in down- town Vancouver’s Gastown district. The bikes were collectively valued at $20,000. Following reports by locals on social media, beat officers were led to the neighbourhood. “Because people came forward to report suspicious activity, our offi- cers were able to launch a criminal investigation and are now working on getting these bikes back to their owners,” Set. Steve Addison said at the time. Bike owners were further encour- aged to register their bikes with Project 529 to increase the likeli- hood of helping recover their bikes if they were to be stolen. However, Brunt said the likeli- hood of convicting those involved in the theft, if arrested, were “slim to none”, adding that finding proof due to various factors would be diffi- cult to obtain due to the nature of the call. “It was by luck that [officers] saw [the bikes], I don’ t think they were there specifically for that reason.”