BBC1 South tonight, Inside Out – feature on how the cops treat stolen/lost goods. Short summary on Breakfast TV – the bloke had his lovely Carrera with dual-clamp SIDs (sorry, couldn’t resist) datatagged and registered with the police database.
Phoned them to say it was nicked.
Took it in to the lost property.
Never got a call – it went up for sale at the police auctions 3 months later.

Maybe they just make more money that way?

Maybe the datatagging is a load of crap as the police can’t scan them.

This was a registration code on the downtube.

So expect them to check the registration code and contact datatag. No wonder people complain to them saying “Why aren’t you catching real criminals?” “well because I was chasing up datatag identifications.”

It proves nothing just a programme made to try and make things look bad.

One way of looking at it. So there’s no point datatagging then?

Phoned them to say it was nicked

hmmm, wasting police time ?

If I have any consumer good stolen the last thing I want is to have it back as the insurance will buy me a nice new one instead…

One way of looking at it. So there’s no point datatagging then?

I guess it depends on the Police on your area just what resources they have for returning such items. Like everything if they don’t have the resources then there are going to be problems.

police don’t have the equipment to scan it according to our local friendly copper!

hmmm, wasting police time ?

I think it’s called journalism.

I’m also a bit puzzled so he phoned them said it was pinched, then took it to the Police station. So after he rang them they may well have had a look seen there wasn’t one matching that, the person who took the call then goes on their days off bike arrives gets put in a old garage at the nick where it sits amongst all the other bikes.

See not enough details, I live in a rural town and have seen the lost property storage area at our local nick, it’s incredible bursting at the seams and some bikes are even in the compound there’s that many, bugger knows what a city station must be like.

Sorry mate, I’ll watch it tonight and give a more detailed report.

You probably can’t as none of that will be revealed or it wouldn’t give the story they were hoping for.

No pleasing you is there

I’m also a bit puzzled so he phoned them said it was pinched, then took it to the Police station. So after he rang them they may well have had a look seen there wasn’t one matching that, the person who took the call then goes on their days off bike arrives gets put in a old garage at the nick where it sits amongst all the other bikes.

So from what your saying you think (could well be true) the only way you would ever get your data tagged bike back is if its found before you report it???

I personnel would think it is “supposed” to go a bit more like this.

You report your bike stolen and tell them its datatagged, the number is then put on database (spreadsheet). Then all bikes that the police get their hands on are scaned and any datatag numbers found are also applied to the same database. This way you will get hit no matter which way round the report and recovery happen.

A copper at the Cycle Show told me that the Met haven’t even rolled out the scanners to every London borough. And in oder to take a reading they need to shove a probe into the seat stem. Great idea but seems flawed by current technology and lack of investment.

So from what your saying you think (could well be true) the only way you would ever get your data tagged bike back is if its found before you report it???

No not what I said at all but close.

I personnel would think it is “supposed” to go a bit more like this.

You report your bike stolen and tell them its datatagged, the number is then put on database (spreadsheet). Then all bikes that the police get their hands on are scaned and any datatag numbers found are also applied to the same database. This way you will get hit no matter which way round the report and recovery happen.

Well yes if all stations had the ability to scan the item and also had the time to check every single item.

“Scan”? “Read” FFS!

This was a registration code on the downtube.

Scan”? “Read” FFS!

We did he’s given an example of possible other cases, so maybe read?