The new policing Pledge:
[i]"There is now a Policing Pledge. It’s a new set of promises from the police on the service they should provide and every force has committed to keeping those promises.
The police promise to listen to your concerns, act on these concerns, and then keep you informed of the progress they’ve made. Each neighbourhood will have locally agreed priorities, as agreed by the community."[/i]
(taken from: http://campaigns.direct.gov.uk/policingpledge/)
Extract taken from a letter recieved from Inspector Mark Jackson, responsible for Lockleaze and Horfield wards:
[i]"I have commissioned some research into this issue, and there is no indication that cycle theft in North Bristol is on the increase.
So far this financial year Burglary of peoples homes in North Bristol has reduced by 13.7% and is still falling, and overall crime has dropped by 8.9%. I am not complacent, and would always urge cycle owners to keep them locked, even if they are kept in a garage or shed."[/i]
[b]So lets take the statements of the pledge one by one:[/b]
listen to your concerns - fair play he read the original letter, well possibly the first line of it anyway.
act on these concerns - no need burglary on the decrease.
keep you informed of the progress they’ve made - not a hope.
Us residents of North Bristol can sleep better tonight knowing that the problem of targetted bike theft is being addressed.
No increase as it is ****ing high in the first place.
Where are the stats??
Along with a previous Police reply came a report, makes no real reference to targetted burglary, what it does give us is this rather amazing statistic:
[i]4.1 Pedal Cycles
Over the two crime years 2006/07 and 2007/08, it is estimated that over £1 million worth of pedal cycles were stolen in Bristol. Of these, only 1% were recovered.[/i]
Harry, you might want to write back and politely point out that, although they're dpoing a bang-up job and all, Bristol has a disproportionately high rate of bike theft comnpared to other cities in the UK, and that the cycling community is losing confidence in the police's ability to deal with the problem (although Agency Scum's story on the other side was pretty heartening).
I don't know if you've seen it already but I did get round to sticking up a website to record Bristol's stolen bikes - kind of a one stop shop for bike shops, concerned buyers of too-good-to-be-true deals, or public-spirited citizens. Let me know if you want to help keep it updated.
http://stolenbristolbikes.blogspot.com/
Bike theft probably hasn't risen because the crooks are probably at capacity and probably can't physically steal any more bikes each night! 👿
If you believe the £1M figure, that's a shitload of bikes, particularly as I bet a lot are on the cheaper end of the scale.
Given that Bristol is pretty hilly, maybe a singlespeed with an unusually large gear would act as a suitable deterrant?
As police fail to get peoples bikes back, people dont bother reporting them as stolen. This results in the level of measured crime dropping. This means the police hit their targets.
So it pays them not to try to meet thier targets just so they can meet them.
Clever isnt it.
The £1 million figure came from Police figures, which also stated that the average price of a Bike Stolen in Bristol during that period was £357.
Working on those figures thats 2800 bikes stolen over the two years, or 4 a day!
But its the recovery rate thats shocking, just 1% recovered, thats just 28 bikes returned in two years. About one a month!
Sorry but this sucks of shocking Policing!
How would the coppers go about stopping the theft I wonder ? Bobbies on the beat wont do it. Any coppers around to give us an insight ?