DENMARK HAS CYCLE THIEVES PROBLEM

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30939, 21 December 1965, Page 22

DENMARK HAS CYCLE THIEVES PROBLEM

The population of Copenhagen is less inclined to bicyclestealing than the population of Christchurch. In Copenhagen one bicycle in every 123 is stolen. In Christchurch one in every 34 is stolen.

In Denmark, the punishment for stealinf a bicycle is imprisonment for not less than 30 days. In Christchurch, a fine may be, and in practice usually is, imposed.

In Copenhagen there are 800,000 bicycles in use. The city's population is about 1,400,000, while the population of greater Chirstchurch to about 233,000, with about 00.000 bicycles in use. There is, therefore, approximately, one bicycle to every two persons in Copenhagen, compared with one to every three in Christchurch. Last year, according to figures supplied to the Christchurch police by the Danish Consul in Christchurch (Mr P. J. Skellerup), the number of bicycles reported stolen to the Copenhagen police was 6475. Of these, 1003 were located and returned to their owners. Recovery Rate In Christchurch last year, 2580 bicycles were reported stolen. Of these. 1842 were recovered and returned to their owners.

The Christchurch recovery

rate to 71 per cent, compared with Copenhagen's 15 per cent. This is surprising, particularly as there is a bicycle registration system in Copenhagen. On the other hand, in a city of 1.4 million with 800,000 bicycles, gangs of bicycle thieves undoubtedly exist—« they do in many European cities—and make a living by stealing bicycles, stripping them, reassembling parts from other cycles and selling the “new" cycles.

There are no such gangs in Christchurch at present Those who have tried it have been quickly brought to book by the police.

Registration All factories in Denmark manufacturing bicycles must be registered with the police. The police allocate each factory a letter. This letter, together with an individual number and another letter which indicates the year of manufacture, to stamped into the frame of every bicycle made in the country. All manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers are compelled by law to keep records of all bicycles sold, the name of the purchaser and the date of the sale. All purchasers of bicycles must give their names and addresses. This system makes it possible for the police to discover the owner of found or stolen bicycles quite easily. The system to also a help to anyone losing their bicycle as the number of the bicycle can be obtained from the seller. Publication When the person reports the loss of a bicycle—and its number—to the police, the loss is advertised in a special bicycle list published every weekday and circulated to manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, dealers and others. The List includes bicycles reported lost, canceHaitton of bicycles published as lost, power-cycles reported as lost and then cancelled when located. There is no such registration system in Christchurch or anywhere else in New Zealand. In Christchurch, it is

possible for a bicycle to have three different numbers stamped on R and tin wholesaler and retailer to record the same bicycle by different number*. Frustration

As a result, the Christchurch poMce can spend months trying to track down the owner of a bicycle. A file on a bicycle con go from town to town—tar example, when a bicycle betanoi to a univoraity student. If tire student has “lent” it to another, and that student has “bequeathed it" to another and the third student has graduated and moved to Auckland . . . and bo on. So the files go back and forth. They are not put aside, so that a bicycle reported stolen years ago is often found. An astonished owner could be informed 20 years . later that his bicycle hoe been located ee was the case this year with a man living in In- ■ veraargti), who bad his bi- , cycle stolen while living hi Christchurch. Complex Task The Christchurch crime prevention officer (Detective-Ser-geant D. C. Lee) thinks that a regtatratfon system similar to that tai Denmark introduced into New Zealand would assist the police in its complex task of tracing missing INre result of this would be a speed-up in the recovery of stolen or lost eyries and result tai more thieves being caught. In Christchurch, a uniform sergeant end three constable,, a detective and three plain clothes inquiry men are occupied all the time on bicycle matters. Their salaries alone would total at least £lO,OOO a year—and the overhead on vehicles, paper work and stamps would be most substantial.

The policemen in the bicycle office could be employed most usefully in other branches if the number of bicycles taken and lost could be reduced, and their taxation speeded by a simpler and quicker records system. In New Zealand last year, 8682 cases of bicycles being converted or unlawfully taken were reported to the police