Apologies if this has already been shared, I did a search but couldn’t find anything.

There’s a petition doing the rounds which urges the police to share the frame numbers of stolen bikes. Thus giving you a chance of recovering your beloved bicycle should it be found by the police.

I hope this is of interest to some of you, feel free to share and sign.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/uk-police-chief-constables-make-frame-numbers-of-stolen-bikes-searchable-via-the-police-api

shared and signed. This is such a good, simple and hopefully cheap idea.

What happens when some one turns up at the station saying frame number ####### that’s mine that is ….

“What kind of bike is it, what colour?”

What happens when some one turns up at the station saying frame number ####### that’s mine that is

Presumably you’ll only be able to search for numbers, rather than read from a list.

Good idea, I would guess that a list of just the frame numbers would be posted, anyone asking about a particular bike would be asked to produce a good photo, describe the make, equipment fitted, etc., before being allowed to claim the bike.
Of course, you have to have a record of the frame number in the first place… 😉

Thanks for your interest, yes I’d hope it was implemented in a secure manner.

The chap who started the petition is presenting the idea tomorrow, in order to get backing/help from the Open Data institute so the more signatures it gets in the next few vital hours the better!

Bit of feedback…

Hi All,

Thanks to your support, I’m happy to say that the Open Data Institute (ODI) picked our project as one of three that they will be providing help to.

This help both gives me the connections and expertise I need to get this data publically released (available to anyone to use) and a grant to help cover costs associated with doing this.

The project is now working and checking commercial bike registers at checkthatbike.co.uk, there is no charge for this service (and never will be) and I’m continuing to improve it during any spare time I get.

The fight isn’t over yet though, I still haven’t got a police force to allow me to check against them and I’m waiting on the Home Office to get back to me on where they are with the Met.

Thank you again for your support, this petition remains an important tool in getting people to take bike crime seriously.

Kind Regards,
John Moss