Over the next few weeks the Santa Cruz Police Department will be analyzing calls-for-service in 2011. Yesterday we took a look at party/noise calls. Today, we pulled numbers on bike thefts in Santa Cruz. Bike theft is one of the most frustrating crimes in our area (many of us at the PD have personally experienced bike theft). In 2011 we saw an increase in the number of bike thefts in our community (over 1-per-day) from a historic average of .65-.85 per-day.
2011: 396 thefts
Tips For Protecting Your Bike:
- Keep the bike locked (even when just running in for a short errand)
- When locking your bike use a proper heavy-duty lock and lock the bike correctly
- Write down the serial number
- Take a photo of the bike to help the community and police find the bike
- If stolen, immediately report it (with photo and serial number) to the police
- Register/license the bike
