From Decatur Police Sgt. Jennifer Ross…

Since January 1, 2015 there have been twelve reported bicycle thefts in the City of Decatur.  Bicycle owners were only able to provide serial numbers for two of the twelve stolen bicycles.   The majority of the thefts occurred in residential areas and all of the stolen bicycles were different brands.  Five were taken from a residential porch or under a deck, two were taken in a residential burglary and five were taken from commercial locations.  Five were unsecured but seven were secured in some manner.

Bicycle thieves count on owners not having record of their serial numbers and proceed to sell and pawn the bicycles.  We have had similar trends in recent years and been able to identify a suspect, make an arrest and recover multiple stolen bicycles because one owner provided us with their serial number.

You can document the needed information yourself by jotting down the brand, model number, serial number and color of your bicycles and taking a photo of each of them.

You can also register your bicycle with the Decatur Police Department. Bicycle registration includes providing owner contact information, having the manufacturer, model number and serial number documented and having a numbered decal applied to and a photo taken of your bicycle.  The process takes just a few minutes.  Registering your bicycle allows officers to look up recovered bicycles and contact the owner and allows for us to quickly look up the needed information about your bicycle if it were to be stolen.  The information is kept in a secured database only accessible by police department staff.

Decatur Police will be conducting bicycle registrations at two upcoming events in Decatur. There is NO CHARGE.

• #1: Touch-A-Truck – Saturday, March 7, 2015 from 10am-1pm in the Callaway Parking Lot located at 120 West Trinity Place.
• #2: Opening Day of the Wednesday Decatur Farmer’s Market on Wednesday, March 25, 2015 from 4pm – 7pm on the front lawn of the First Baptist Church Decatur located at 308 Clairemont Avenue.

If you have additional questions, please contact Sgt. Jennifer Ross at [email protected] or .