U of T campus police are encouraging students to take increased precautions to prevent bike thefts over the summer months.
Over the past five months, campus police has received 16 reports of stolen bicycles at the St. George campus. Campus police also reported that in 2013, 78 per cent of bikes stolen at St. George were secured with a cable lock.
Luis Lopez, a second-year student, had his bicycle stolen at St. Hilda’s earlier this year. The bicycle was locked with a cable lock. “The only thing they left behind was the bike lock, which was broken in half,” said Lopez, adding: “When I talked to the [St. Hilda’s] porter about it, he said that bike stealing was a common occurrence in U of T.” Lopez claimed that campus police did not follow up with him after he filed a police report, nor did they offer bike theft prevention advice.
According to Erin Lemon, U of T director of integrated marketing and communications, bike theft rates have decreased at U of T in past years, noting the 120 reported bike thefts in 2011 compared to the 88 in 2013. She credits this decline in bike thefts to U of T’s increased surveillance and bicycle safety awareness campaigns through social media.
“Bike thefts commonly occur near Robarts Library, Warren Stevens and east of St. George Street. Generally, more thefts occur in the afternoon to early evening,” said Lemon, adding that thieves often target new, high-priced bicycles. Lemon also suggested using at least one U-Lock and taking other bike accessories with you.
To prevent bike theft, Lemon encouraged students to register their bikes online with the Toronto Police. This allows police to ensure bicycle serial numbers are kept permanently on record, and are easily retrievable. Police can then identify recovered bicycles and efficiently return them to the owner.
Since the police database for stolen bicycles can only be searched by serial number, bike theft reports without a serial number are far more difficult to follow up on. For example, the police recovered around 3,000 bikes from bicycle thief Igor Kenk in 2008. However, the lack of registered serial numbers meant only 450 of the bikes were returned to their owners.
Lemon recommended that students do not buy a second-hand bike, unless they trust the seller. This prevents students from unknowingly supporting the market for stolen bikes.
The site “Is this Bike Stolen?” helps people verify whether a bicycle is stolen by checking the bicycle’s serial number against the registered serial numbers stored in the police database. It also shows bicyclists where serial numbers are most commonly located on their bikes.
The latest available data from Toronto Police Services shows that around 3,400 bicycles in Toronto were reported stolen in 2012. This represents an increase of about 300 stolen bicycles over the previous year.
