Community policing volunteers are stepping up their efforts to have cyclists register their bicycles in a central database. They hope to make reuniting stolen bikes with their owners easier.
RCMP Constable Tim Kenning said that while bike theft is not a huge problem in Powell River, sometimes reuniting people with their possessions is.
“There are the odd few that get stolen and the few bikes we recover and we can’t find their rightful owners,” said Kenning. When that is the case, those bikes are donated to Powell River Association for Community Living (PRACL).
Up until now, Kenning said the Community Policing Office has not been able to create a database of numbers large enough to be really effective in the police’s recovery efforts, but he hopes that will change.
“If you flip over any bicycle there should be a serial number,” said Kenning. “If people are recording them on their own that’s good too, but this is just an extra step that might make our job a little easier.”
Volunteers are running bike identification sessions from 10 am to 4 pm every Saturday at the office which is located in Powell River Town Centre Mall next to Peoples Jewellers. Cyclists can have their bikes engraved with identifying numbers and have the bike serial numbers logged for free.
For more information, readers can contact the office at 604.485.8567 or the RCMP detachment at 604.485.6255.
