Burlington officials are hoping to deter bike theft by encouraging residents to register their bikes with the city.
An increase in property theft and calls from constituents prompted the mayor’s office to work with the Burlington Police Department to set up a voluntary bike registration system, according to Jordan Redell, chief of staff to Mayor Miro Weinberger. The database is intended to assist in the return of stolen bikes, Redell said.
Residents have been expressing their frustration on social media. Members of a Facebook group called BVT Stolen Bike Report and Recovery have criticized police for not doing enough to address bike theft — including charging bike thieves. The group, created by Michael Waters, a bike mechanic, now has close to 2,000 members.
By the end of July, there had been 778 reports of personal property theft, a category that includes bikes. That’s nearly twice as many as the previous five-year average of 377.
The registry website is live and the city plans to promote it to the public on social media and other channels in the coming weeks. Burlington residents can begin bike registration by navigating to the website and detailing physical identifiers of their bike, including manufacturer, model name, color and serial number. They can also upload a picture of the bike.
The city is also mailing postcards to residents informing them of the registry and describing various crime prevention methods, including ways to prevent bike theft.
“We think that communications effort around prevention is one of the things that the city can be doing” to address theft, Redell said.
Police officers often encounter people who do not seem to be the legitimate owner of the bike in their possession, said Acting Police Chief Jon Murad at an Aug. 23 police commission meeting. Without proof, the police must let the person ride off on that bike, he said.
Not everyone is convinced the city registry will make much difference, however.
Liam Griffin, a Burlington bike advocate, called the city’s registration plan “a waste of time and resources … because there’s better resources that already exist.”
While police will be able to access Burlington’s bike registry, residents won’t have the ability to view it.
Griffin pointed to Bike Index, a national bike registration site that allows anyone to view what bikes are registered and reported stolen, as a better alternative.
“The barrier of use with Burlington’s system is that it doesn’t work for consumers,” Griffin said.
A bike stolen from South Carolina eight months ago recently turned up in Vermont and was returned to its owner after a Colchester resident checked the serial number on Bike Index.
Griffin’s concern with Burlington’s initiative is that if the reverse happens and a Vermonter’s bike is taken out of state, the rightful owner may never be reunited with their property. He says he’d prefer the city encourage residents to use a national registry rather than setting up a potentially less useful local one.
“While I applaud BPD for trying to do something, it seems like they’re currently short on resources,” Griffin said. “It would be better for them to use sort of an existing resource than to develop something that doesn’t work as well as something that is readily available and free for people to use.”
Jonathan Weber, complete streets program manager at Local Motion, a nonprofit that promotes biking, said he plans to encourage residents to make use of the database as well as national databases for registering bikes.
“We support the police department as a city setting up the voluntary registration system if it will aid them in returning stolen bikes to their rightful owners,” Weber said.
However, he suggested that the best way for Burlingtonions to solve the problem is by making their bikes harder to steal. Weber encourages the use of a U-lock or chain lock to lock bikes outside, instead of a cable lock, which can be easily cut. He also suggests locking the bike’s frame and rear wheel to a “stationary, solid object, ideally a bike rack” in a well-lit area where there is frequent foot traffic and, if possible, bringing the bike inside at night.
Correction: An earlier version of this story contained a typo in a quote and understated the increase in larceny.
