Does Dublin need a specialized Garda bike theft unit?

Aviator55 · 27-09-2011 02:27PM #1

London, Seattle and Amsterdam have them.
A letter to the "Irish Times" today mentions a victim of bike theft who was advised to go to a market in North Cumberland street to buy his bike back from the robbers.
Even a short term task force could achieve a lot, if the Guards could be arsed.

Raam · 27-09-2011 02:31PM

Good idea, but I hope they make it a giant squad.

Raam · 27-09-2011 02:34PM

Actually, before you mentioned it, I never felt that we needed one.

Jawgap · 27-09-2011 02:40PM

Yes - the sooner the collars of the thieves are Felt the better - it might be some Trek to catch them, so they would need to decide where to Focus. Although they shouldn't have to work on a Sabbath.

If they confine themselves to the city centre people might get Huffy or even Surly. If they could move at Litespeed they could cover both, or if they were magicians like Merlin, they could bi-locate. If they did they would present thieves with an enigma.

Anyway, hopefully if they catch some thieves they'll prosecute rather than just put black merckx against them and let them off Scott free - Puch them out to Planet X to get rid of them. Hopefully the Guards will be Vitus on that point.

Piercemeear · 27-09-2011 02:40PM

I'd never considered this before, but it's not a bad idea. They did post extra gardai in the IFSC recently to try to prevent iPhone snatchers on bikes. It seems that if you moved those gardai over to a unit tasked with cutting down bike theft you might address the problem at the source... ha.

Raam · 27-09-2011 02:42PM

Where would they even start to look for stolen bikes?

DirkVoodoo · 27-09-2011 02:43PM

Aviator55 wrote: »

London, Seattle and Amsterdam have them.
A letter to the "Irish Times" today mentions a victim of bike theft who was advised to go to a market in North Cumberland street to buy his bike back from the robbers.
Even a short term task force could achieve a lot, if the Guards could be arsed.

Sometimes I wonder who is worse really.

I was on Cuffe street yesterday, heading towards Kevin street and stopped at the lights at the junction. To my right, a boy racer (badly "pimped" ford focus, jesus wept!) was making an illegal right turn onto Kevin street when a Garda van pulled up and had a few words. Fine, enforce the law, great!

Their light turns red, myself and the other traffic begins to head off as our light is now green when the Garda van just carries on through the junction, with another car glued to his bumper following through as well. There was no siren, no emergency as they sat in traffic on Camden street.

What chance do people have when those entrusted with enforcing the law can't put up any type of example themselves? The light was red a good while, it was pretty much just giving two-fingers to the rest of us. Yeah, we can break the law and there is nothing you can do about it.

So, I'm not surprised that was the advice given for recovering a stolen bike and I'm not holding out hope for a task force. Let's be fair, the Gardai do a pretty good job most of the time, but that kind of disregard filters its way down through society. Feck it, I'll steal a bike, no one will mind.

Lumen · 27-09-2011 02:44PM

I would happily take on a volunteer role as a "special", if I got a free hurley, life insurance and immunity from prosecution.

DirkVoodoo · 27-09-2011 02:47PM

Lumen wrote: »

I would happily take on a volunteer role as a "special", if I got a free hurley, life insurance and immunity from prosecution.

Seriously? You wouldn't know what to do with it. This is more you:

ednwireland · 27-09-2011 02:50PM

Raam wrote: »

Where would they even start to look for stolen bikes?

did you not read the letter !

http://www.irishtimes.com/letters/index.html#1224304799940

Sir, – My son saved up for a year to buy a bicycle that was stolen from where it was secured (with a U-lock that was cut through) outside our house. The Garda advice was to go to a market on North Cumberland Street in Dublin 1 to try and locate it. At this market were tens of young males who were selling very expensive adult bicycles for far under market prices. Shouldn’t the Garda monitor this market and examine some of these goods? I left the market sickened and angry that nothing is seen to be done to deter such activities. – Yours, etc,

north cumberland street obviousley

Raam · 27-09-2011 02:53PM

ednwireland wrote: »

did you not read the letter !

http://www.irishtimes.com/letters/index.html#1224304799940

north cumberland street obviousley

Ah come on, tell me you got my posts.

Jawgap · 27-09-2011 03:06PM

To answer the question seriously - we may "need" one but we shouldn't have one - leave the Guards alone to investigate proper crimes, rather than relatively trivial crimes against non-essential property.

I know a lot of bikes are nicked to feed drug habits, but stopping bike theft isn't going to impact the drug problem - they'll just go steal something else.

Of course, I reserve the right to change that position if one of my bikes ever gets nicked!

Raam · 27-09-2011 03:07PM

What kinds of property are essential?

Lumen · 27-09-2011 03:10PM

Raam wrote: »

What kinds of property are essential?

Cycles. Cycling shoes. Cycling socks. Cycling hats. Cycling jerseys. Cycling gloves. Cycling jackets. Gilets. Overshoes. Cover socks. Arm warmers. Knee warmers. Eurosport receiving device. Eurosport viewing device. Belgian beer.

DirkVoodoo · 27-09-2011 03:11PM

Stealing bikes is a gateway to bigger crimes, like tandem bikes.

I think the point of the article was that this crime is so blatant, it would take very little police resources to sort it. If people thought bikes were too much hassle to steal, they wouldn't bother.

You say that these guys would instead try stealing other things. That's true, but if you keep making it difficult to steal and sell stolen goods, they might find that yes, the drugs don't work, they just make your worse. Now go get a job and become a functioning member of society before Lumen bashes your skull in.

-Chris- · 27-09-2011 03:29PM

The problem for the Gardai is that they're evidence gatherers rather than prosecutors. They'll need to be able to prove to a judge that the bike was definitely nicked.

Because there's no central bike register, because (nearly) nobody knows the serial number off their bike, because nobody gets their bike security tagged, then the Gardai find it hard to mate bikes with ex-owners.

How many people with BSOs, or unmodified Halfords bikes, would be able to prove to a Garda/court "yep, that's definitely my bike"?

I don't know if the Gardai are allowed to head up to North Cumberland St and just start confiscating bikes saying "I'm pretty sure that's not yours", and even if they did, what would they do with the bikes?

IMHO there's not much point in a specialised Garda bike theft unit until the cycling public start registering or tagging their bikes.

Kintarō Hattori · 27-09-2011 03:36PM

If my car was stolen and I went to the cops I'm sure they'd take it pretty seriously. If my bike was stolen and I went to the cops I can't see them taking things too seriously. They both cost roughly the same.

I get the impression that a lot of people still see bikes as 'play things', something not to be taken too seriously.

HivemindXX · 27-09-2011 03:41PM

I don't agree with the idea that bikes are non-essential and therefore them being stolen shouldn't be worried about. Do we have a special unit for car theft? Even if we don't I'm pretty sure a motorist would not be happy to report his car stolen only to get told "realistically no change of getting that back, maybe you should go out to Belgard and see if you can find it parked in a showroom".

What Chris said is far more relevant. It's hard to prove that bike is yours if you don't know the frame number. If the guards could go along to someplace and check all the frame numbers and arrest anyone selling a stolen bike or a bike with the frame number missing or altered stealing bikes would be a bit less attractive.

It's worth repeating the advice I use (which actually resulted in me getting stolen bike back).

When you buy a bike take a photograph of it, print it out, write the frame number on the back and staple the receipt to it. This helps a lot when you want to report it stolen. If everyone did this stealing bikes would be a lot less profitable and therefore a lot less common.

Jawgap · 27-09-2011 03:42PM

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Stealing bikes is a gateway to bigger crimes, like tandem bikes.

I think the point of the article was that this crime is so blatant, it would take very little police resources to sort it. If people thought bikes were too much hassle to steal, they wouldn't bother.

You say that these guys would instead try stealing other things. That's true, but if you keep making it difficult to steal and sell stolen goods, they might find that yes, the drugs don't work, they just make your worse. Now go get a job and become a functioning member of society before Lumen bashes your skull in.

True - you don't see too many tandems around so they must all be getting nicked and melted down to make unicycles.

If they can't steal easy stuff locked to lamposts with locks no better than wet twine what might they steal - hand bags from old dears, or start entering properties to filch stuff, increasing the risk of someone getting injured.

Legalising drugs is really the answer to the problem of bike theft.

I'm not too worried about Lumen - he wouldn't know which end of the hurley to use:)

Jawgap · 27-09-2011 04:04PM

Raam wrote: »

What kinds of property are essential?

Only those needed to meet your immediate physiological needs:)

Day+41+Maslow%2527s+Hierarchy.jpg

monument · 27-09-2011 04:07PM

The national cycle policy has something to day about this (as it does about most things)...

Tackling Bicycle Theft and Vandalism
We will develop a national strategy to tackle bicycle theft in collaboration with stakeholders. This is likely to include cycling organizations, Local Authorities, An Garda Síochána, bicycle shops, lock manufacturers, insurance companies, producers of parking equipment etc. Such a strategy is likely to include recommendations on the need to develop a national register / database of bikes, publications aimed at cyclists advising them on how to / where to lock bikes, specific policies dealing with abandoned bicycles etc.

There are plans by Gardai and others currently to raise awareness on locking bikes correctly.

Lusk Doyle · 27-09-2011 04:08PM

Jawgap wrote: »

Yes - the sooner the collars of the thieves are Felt the better - it might be some Trek to catch them, so they would need to decide where to Focus. Although they shouldn't have to work on a Sabbath.

If they confine themselves to the city centre people might get Huffy or even Surly. If they could move at Litespeed they could cover both, or if they were magicians like Merlin, they could bi-locate. If they did they would present thieves with an enigma.

Anyway, hopefully if they catch some thieves they'll prosecute rather than just put black merckx against them and let them off Scott free - Puch them out to Planet X to get rid of them. Hopefully the Guards will be Vitus on that point.

Too clever. I bet you that took ages and a few re-reads to get it right!

Lusk Doyle · 27-09-2011 04:11PM

Lumen wrote: »

I would happily take on a volunteer role as a "special", if I got a free hurley, life insurance and immunity from prosecution.

You're in Leinster boy. Use the correct term :cool:

kincsem · 27-09-2011 04:12PM

I have two Specialized bikes. So its a yes from me.

Jawgap · 27-09-2011 04:24PM

Lusk Doyle wrote: »

Too clever. I bet you that took ages and a few re-reads to get it right!

First para was easy enough - you can see I was struggling by the third!!!

07Lapierre · 27-09-2011 04:24PM

Imagine this lot patrolling our streets on blue and white pinarello's and blue flashing light s on there helmets! Nice!

Raam · 27-09-2011 04:25PM

Jawgap wrote: »

First para was easy enough - you can see I was struggling by the third!!!

That's why I went with the single line per post approach.

PandyAndy · 27-09-2011 04:33PM

-Chris- wrote: »

...

Because there's no central bike register, because (nearly) nobody knows the serial number off their bike, because nobody gets their bike security tagged, then the Gardai find it hard to mate bikes with ex-owners.

...

Was going to say the same thing. I'd be surprised if most people even knew their bike had a serial number.

monument · 27-09-2011 04:41PM

It's worth noting that even if your bike is stolen and you have not recorded it, some bike shops keep that information in their database.

Bunnyhopper · 27-09-2011 04:53PM

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Stealing bikes is a gateway to bigger crimes

Sgt Harrington says teenagers and young men are becoming involved in on-street bike thefts because they can make some money and believe the chances of being caught, like the sanctions, are minimal. “They think, Bikes are handy: I won’t get caught. But it’s now acting as a gateway crime to more serious offending.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0910/1224303828309.html

monument · 27-09-2011 04:58PM

While there are a good few older junkies who nick bikes, the young guys at it are training.

Gateway drug is the wrong way to look at it. Everybody has to start off somewhere in their working life.

Does Dublin need a specialized Garda bike theft unit?

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