From Seattle Police‘s crime-prevention coordinator for the Southwest Precinct, Jennifer Burbridge: “We have recently seen an increase in bicycle thefts in the North Admiral and the Alaska Junction neighborhoods. Due to this increase, the SW Precinct would like to provide our communities with some helpful prevention techniques.” See them here, and/or embedded below:
If we lic. all bikes this will make it easyer for the police to identify a stollen one
No surprise. There has been a massive bicycle ‘chop shop’ under the east end of the Swing Bridge and even after being reported nothing done. Must have been at least 25+ bike frames there at one time. SPD just doesn’t care. If they did how do you account for so many bikes at homeless camps.
When photographing your bike, it’s not that difficult to photograph the serial number as well. Then all the info is collected in one place.
Any comment from the police on the large amount of bikes that are in the encampments at the east end of the lower bridge, at the 1st ave exit from the bridge, along East Marginal way etc? There are literally piles of bikes, wheels, other parts.
This is from the crime-prevention coordinator in the Southwest Precinct, who is (a) a civilian employee, not a sworn officer or investigator, and (b) the SW Precinct’s jurisdiction ends some distance short of there.
ok, that is one way to handle the question…the fact is there are many encampments with piles of bikes, bike parts, people actively chopping up bikes that i feel quite safe to say don’t belong to them. i would guess this is true in any district or neighborhood.
Bingo Flimflam! It is incredibly frustrating to see bike chopshops operate out in the open with what seems to be little if not zero investigation by anyone within law enforcement. I imagine that SPD has been instructed to leave these criminal operations alone as part of the Mayor and City Council’s ridiculous approach to handling the transients/unsheltered/homeless/etc. Adult bikes are being stolen and chopped and sold all over the city. Ballard is really bad and happens right on the planting strip. It is particularly galling to see a chopshop tearing apart children’s bikes and tricycles. If anyone questions this observation of mine, go for a walk near the BMW dealership at 1002 Airport Way South. Look for the guy with the cardboard and pallet condominium setup in the triangle of tree’s, streets and sidewalks near the south side of the BMW dealer. He moves the kids bikes in and out very quickly.
Bike owners can also have a better chance at recovery by registering bikes at
Bike Index https://bikeindex.org/ and the 529 Project https://project529.com/garage/
Bike buyers can reduce the market for stolen bikes by not taking deals they know are too good to be true on Craigslist, and by checking out seller’s bikes on those registries.
Securely stored and locked bikes are being stolen in large numbers every day. Stolen bikes are being used as currency. Open air bike chop shops are operating in SODO and elsewhere, with full knowledge of police and all levels of city government. Police and city prosecutors could do more than just tell bike owners to lock up their bikes.
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