Bicycle theft is a common property crime in Juneau \u2014 and one that rises to the level of more than an annoyance if you have invested in a higher-end bicycle, which could run you well above $1,000.<\/p>\n
Compounding the problem is the fact that, even when the Juneau Police Department recovers stolen bikes, its staff often has to declare them as abandoned.<\/p>\n
JPD Lt. Kris Sell estimates that the department collects about 100 bicycles a year, and only a dozen of those will be reunited with their owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe large majority never make it home,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sell and JPD, in collaboration with Juneau Rides, is aiming to change those statistics, helping with drives to register local bikes through an online system called 529 Garage. Two such drives have been held recently, in Douglas during the Fourth of July and at the Duck Derby earlier this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited about the bike registration program,\u201d Sell said. \u201cThere\u2019s way too much bicycle theft in Juneau.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juneau Rides, a branch of the Juneau Freewheelers Bicycle Club and Juneau Mountain Bike Alliance, sponsored the partnership between JPD and Project 529, with matching funding coming from Cycle Alaska.<\/p>\n
\u201cBike theft in Juneau has become a considerable problem in as well as numerous other petty crimes,\u201d BryAnne Rounds of Juneau Rides wrote in a recent email. \u201cIt is our belief that with joint community and JPD efforts, we can prevent if not curb bike theft in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rounds said she began trying to bring together interested stakeholders last fall, after her $2,000 mountain bike was stolen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI managed to get my bike back by putting up a reward and stomping the streets for several days,\u201d Rounds said. \u201cDuring this time, it became evident to me JPD was overwhelmed with other thefts such as in-home invasions and business vandalism, and bikes were of low priority. Citizens like ourselves needed to help with creative solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The registration event at the Duck Derby was particularly successful, Rounds said, adding, \u201cWe had a wonderful turnout and registered so many bikes that we lost count.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bicycle registration drives allowed volunteers to show people how easy it is to register, Sell said.<\/p>\n
The old registration system used by the police department was very localized and not very user-friendly, she said. In contrast, on 529 Garage, bike owners can enter every bike owned by their family in the virtual garage and the system is searchable by brand of bicycle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so easy,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can register it, with a picture, in five minutes on your phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The online registration system is not confined to Juneau, so it will help if stolen bicycles are being shipped out of town, Sell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d really like to see this spread, because the more it spreads, the better it will work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Juneau Rides also proposed a \u201cbait bike\u201d program, which has not been successful as yet, Sell said. A bait bike program would entail leaving a bicycle, installed with a tracking device, in a location that would be attractive to a thief. Police would then track down the bike, and hopefully, the thief. There are similar programs in Portland, Sacramento and San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Part of the problem locally for the program is finding a usable bike that will be attractive enough, or expensive enough, to steal, Sell explained.<\/p>\n
After 90 days, bikes recovered by JPD that are not claimed are declared abandoned. The department tried using one of those bikes as \u201cbait\u201d for potential thieves, with no luck.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a risk you will lose (the bait bike), so we have hesitated to risk a high-end bike,\u201d Sell said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to lose thousands of dollars every time we go out \u2014 that would not be sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sell said the department is looking into improving the tracking system for a better bait bike, but added that it is really stressing bike registration as a more proactive step to combating theft.<\/p>\n
To register your bike, you can go to the JPD website, click on the \u201cHow do I\u201d dropdown menu and then go to \u201cbike registration,\u201d<\/a> or go directly to the 529 Garage site at www.529garage.com\/juneau<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 Contact reporter Liz Kellar at 523-2246 or liz.kellar@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bicycle theft is a common property crime in Juneau \u2014 and one that rises to the level of more than an annoyance if you have invested in a higher-end bicycle, which could run you well above $1,000. Compounding the problem is the fact that, even when the Juneau Police Department recovers stolen bikes, its staff […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":31671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31670"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n