Bike Security – tips to keep bikes safe
Secured by Design (SBD), the official police security initiative, have put together tips to help owners keep their bikes safe and secure – advice very relevant to students starting at or returning to University, given many of them will use cycling as a means of transport.
The dedicated webpage - https://www.securedbydesign.com/guidance/crime-prevention-advice/bike-security - includes tips around registering bikes on appropriate databases, security marking and the type of locks which should be used to deter opportunistic thieves, as well as listing SBD member companies who have bike security products which have achieved Police Preferred Specification standard.
Around 300,000 bikes stolen across the UK each year, with 60% of all bike thefts occurring when the owner hasn’t secured their bike, either forgetting to or thinking that it was safe. Around 70% of these thefts took place during the week and 30% took place during the weekend.
While large quantities of believed to be stolen bikes are recovered each year, the police are often unable to return them or prosecute offenders as the owners of the bikes cannot be traced.
SBD work closely with standards and certification bodies to ensure that their publicly available standards actually meet the needs of the police and public alike and is the only way for companies to obtain police recognition for security-related products in the UK.