Bicycle Theft

According to the Home Office there were 21,315 incidents of bicycle theft in the Metropolitan Police Area in 2010-11. This represented a seven per cent increase from the previous year. More than half of the thefts take place directly outside the home and 14% of bikes are taken from inside the home. 75% of these thefts occurred during the week and 25% at weekends (a trend that has seen weekday theft gradually increasing since 2003/04). 

Figures obtained by car accessories and bicycle retailer Halfords in 2011 show that more bikes are reported stolen to the Metropolitan Police each year than any other police force in the UK.

Halfords obtained the data after making Freedom of Information Act requests to police forces throughout the UK, resulting in the following top ten police areas in terms of absolute numbers of recorded bike thefts.

Metropolitan Police 21,315
Thames Valley 6,060
Greater Manchester 5,185
Cambridgeshire 4,477
Avon and Somerset 3,895
West Midlands 3,222
Leicestershire 3,057
Lancashire 2,727
Sussex 2,668
Humberside 2,440

The Halfords data is based on police responses covering either the 2010 calendar year, the 2009/10 financial year, or the 12 months ending February 2011. 

Bicyle Theft Prevention

Very basic prevention precautions against theft would dramatically reduce the problem. Such cost effective prevention schemes and simple precaustions are found in the links below. Community Safety Partnerships should identify the hotspots - often adjacent to transport termini and support the development of secure bicyle racks and bicycle security awareness.

Design entry for the Design Against Bicycle Theft programme sponsored by the Home Office and the Royal Society of Arts CityRacks Design Competition 2007-08

Bicycle Theft Links

Anti Theft Resources from Bikeoff.org

As part of its strategy to identify and share best practice in the field of cycle theft reduction, Bikeoff research generates visual resources to disseminate research findings to cyclists.

Steer clear of cycle theft | Download PDF file (605 K )