Reed College Latest to Implement Bike Bait Theft Prevention Program
2 Apr 2015Getting your bike stolen when you’re in college can be a disaster. Most students are living on tiny budgets. Replacing a bike is expensive. Often a student’s two means of transportation are walking or biking. Sadly, bike theft is common on college campuses. According to the FBI, bike theft costs owners over $350 million each year.
In a four-month period, Reed College in Portland, OR had more than 30 bicycles reported stolen. In response, the campus police are taking proactive measures to catch thieves and make bike theft less tempting.
In addition to increasing the number of patrols on campus, the school is attaching GPS tracking devices to specific bikes, called bait bikes. The results are impressive. Here is an example.
At 2:30 in the afternoon a device was attached to an bike abandoned in a theft-prone area. By 8:30 that same evening, the GPS tracking device sent a message to campus patrols that it had been moved.
When the campus safety officers responded, the bike was missing but they encountered several suspicious people who left in a van. Security later received new data from the tracking device, updating its new location in a nearby county. The campus notified the local sheriff’s department, who were able to recover the bike.
Campuses all over the country are using tracking devices on bait bikes. On each campus implementing this strategy, bike thefts have dropped dramatically. Winthrop University in South Carolina reported a dramatic 75% decrease in the number of bikes stolen.
Security Measures Are Critical
GPS tracking technology helps security officers find missing bikes, catch thieves, and reduce the number of attempted thefts. But the core way of reducing the number of missing bikes on campus is convincing students to use locks, even if they will be leaving them for just 15 or 20 minutes.
Security officers recommend U-locks, which are much more reliable than cable locks, which can be easily cut. The most expensive part of a bike is the frame, which is the part a U-lock secures. Cable is useful for securing wheels, when used in conjunction with a U-lock, not in place of it.
Students should also attach bikes to a rack made specifically for bikes, not just to a pole or sign. Bike racks are more secure and harder to cut.
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