Has anyone put Datatag or Immobitag onto their bike, had their bike stolen and got the bike back? Do the police have scanners for both types and do they use them on bikes?

Can you still get a “Data-tag”? I haven’t seen a bike with the sticker on since the late 90s, and even then I just though it helped mark out the premium bikes for the scrotes to steal, you might as well just put a “Knick This One!” sticker on your Frame…

cookeaa. They’re both available. I don’t know how well used on bikes they are or how effective. You raise a good point though – Should you mark the bike with the stickers/logos?

We use immobilise on our bikes, a lot will depend on your local police force. At the minute Thames Valley don’t subscribe to it but Mr MC is on a mission to get it working. We have them in our bike anyway as decided it was soo cheap it was worth a go!!

I had my bike marked by the Met Police recently, and when the guy saw the Datatag sticker he said it was a total waste of time because the police hardly have any of the scanners and they don’t bother using them anyway.

However, the “permanent” marking job they did was also a total waste of time as it washed off the next time I cleaned my bike…

You do hear tales of all the High value bikes in a specific area benig taken in one night, i know at least one person this sort of thing has happened to, Local police apparently had a flurry of reports and failed to retrieve any of the bikes, if this happens you’re better off having spent more on insuring than Tagging the bike..

The presumption is that when these sort of targeted raids occur the bikes are spirited away to another part of the country and stripped for quiet local sales…

So realistically do the Plod ever even get eyes on a stolen bike? let alone a Data tag scanner or other such kit? Lets be frank, they don’t prioritise bicycle theft generally, the “Unofficial” view is probably that the Victim has not lost an essential possesion like a Car or a 52″ TV not have they been Stabbed, so it doesn’t merit much investigation, push through te paper so the owner can make his claim,,, sad really

You are probably better off just taking a note of the Frame Number and possibly making some sort of discreet, unique marking of your own somewhere, along with a dated photo as proof, just incase you ever do spot your stolen pride and joy on ebay and need to proove ownership: I reckon initials Mechanically etched on the inside of the Head tube or BB shell, something a tealeaf will most likely overlook and not bother to fill in, but will be indesputably unique to that frame, external marks can be filled/filed/oversprayed…

(Mr MC posting)

we the plod do what we can. I used my own ebay account 2 weeks ago to get a stolen bike back (along with a couple of others we suspect are stolen). I recently nicked someone on a nice cannondale who, along with his mates, had got a train in from 20 miles away equipped with bolt croppers, and after getting one bike they rode around town looking for better bikes. Fortunately our CCTV operators are eagle eyed and led us straight to them.

MC and I have immobitags. Whether you get the tag or not, register your bikes at http://www.immobilise.com. It is a spin off from the national mobile phone register which AFAIK every force uses, and many check stuff on the police version of immobilise. Crime records are held locally, so if your bike got nicked in oxford and a scumbag was stopped on it in Swindon, they wouldnt know it was nicked from their force crime recording.

I know STW arent representative of the general bike owning public but please record as much detail as you can. Ive just spent the day allocating crimes to investigate; I had a bicycle theft with the only description as “blue”…. And if you are unlucky enough to having something stolen and report it, spell the name and details. You are not talking to a police officer or a cyclist, youre talking to a someone in a call centre under pressure to hit handling targets. They should ask if they are unsure but in my experience they will guess. Today I passed on an investigation into the theft of two “Bronson” folding bikes worth £800 each. I changed the details to Brompton, but the next sergeant in my position may not be so knowledgeable, and should be able to take the record at face value. Were we to stop Johnny Junky tomorrow riding these bikes we’d have had no idea they were stolen.

And cookea you are sadly right about priorities. The home office sets us targets for dwelling burglary, violent crime, robbery and car crime, so naturally in a bid to meet those targets as an organisation we put more resources into those areas. If you have a 80 quid sat nav stolen from your car, a dedicated team of officers will investigate it. If your 4 grand bike is stolen from a bike rack, a uniform response officer being run ragged (we had 7 officers for a city of 150,000 today…) will be given it to investigate it in their occasional minutes of free time. All you can hope for is that officer is as diligent and professional as the vast majority of mine are, and they are allowed the time to investigate

Probably not what you want to hear, and longer than the question demanded, but its a pet subject of mine so induces rants.

It’s good to hear where bike theft stands from a serving officer (thanks MR MC). Priorites and targets are obviously elsewhere.

I’ll register the bike details on http://www.immobilise.com.

I’d still like to know if the police have Datatag or Immobitag scanners and if they use them on bikes.

we bought a box of 50 immobitags at work – cheap to buy in bulk.