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and charged with Felony Bike Theft. Press Release is below. This should make it much more difficult to beat the two prior felony bike theft counts which were brought against him in July. We love the Wilmette police department.

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As an aside, I emailed the Chief and had a personal reply in less than a half hour.

I know its 100% unrealistic both budget and personnel wise, but I can't help but think that when thieves think there is even the remote chance the are being watched that it might serve as some sort of deterrent. However, as a regular visitor to the stolen bike registry, it seems that there's a fair share of surveillance video of people walking off with bikes completely undeterred by the thought that someone saw them. <shrug>

Good points Cameron! I forget that downtown Chicago is not really the center of the universe.

Thanks for emailing the Chief everyone! I plan to do the same. If the pizza fund happens I'm definitely willing to contribute.

This is excellent. I know from my contacts at UIC police department that their superiors are not always as enthusiastic about devoting time and resources to bike theft as they happen to be.

Cameron Puetz said:

After reading the Wilmette PD's website on sending compliments and complaints, it sounds like writing the Chief is a good idea. Even though none of the involved officers are named, it's a small enough department that any praise should get to the right people.

 

http://www.wilmette.com/departments/police/complimentscomplaints.aspx

 

Cameron Puetz said:

The problem with both of those venues is that they're in the city. I'm not sure you'd get a Wilmette detective to drive in for either one to accept an award. Although if they were already downtown for court they might step outside for the bike to work rally. The best thing you could do for them is something public in Wilmette, like an open letter to the police chief and mayor. Or call internal affairs with a compliment, since all they normally get are complaints, a compliment is likely to get noticed.

Wilmette is pretty aggressive (usually justified) about enforcing traffic laws with respect to cyclists, so any "Thanks" we can send is a good PR move in my opinion.  I sent a quick message and quickly received a nice response, with promises that my message would be passed on to the detectives.

I got a response from the Chief via e-mail as well. Good stuff! ;-) Send your thanks! ;-)

As a former service manager I can confirm that a note of thanks is the way to go. It lasts forever, unlike pizza. The police need to know their work is appreciated. I do wish they hadn't mentioned the tool that was used.

I wonder if PD's that don't take bike theft seriously are aware of the value of some of the bikes that are being stolen. It's not the $100 bikes that are disappearing.

Vince, some of the bikes are low value. The crooks have a "look"  that they go for. And when we went down to the swap there were a lot of bikes that were similar cause they know what they can fence. Value was a problem on pressing charges when we recovered bikes. ;-(

It should not be about value anyway. Bike theft is a crime against the planet, not just the individual bike owner. It should be treated accordingly.

Point taken. I should have said that it's not just the $100 bikes that are being stolen. It's true that most big buck bikes would never be left unattended. When I posted I was thinking of the guy I met that had his 1 day old $3500 bike stolen within an hour of locking it up outside his office. The cops didn't believe a bike could cost that much.

It's true that thieves target what they can unload quickly and they do also consider the $500 threshold that can up charge from misdemeanor to felony.

I myself am more worried about my '78 Panasonic Sport  than my 4 yr old hybrid cause hybrids just ain't hot as old road bikes. And the old Panny has more "value" to me to cause I love it and it will cost me much more to replace it than the $50 in parts it took to get this one rolling.


Gabe said:

Vince, some of the bikes are low value. The crooks have a "look"  that they go for. And when we went down to the swap there were a lot of bikes that were similar cause they know what they can fence. Value was a problem on pressing charges when we recovered bikes. ;-(

 

True but the law puts a dollar value on the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony.

The point I was poorly trying to make was that some bikes cost as much as some of the cars people drive and certainly have as much "value" to a non auto owner as a car does to it's owner. It sometimes seems that police treat bike theft as "just a bike" whereas a car theft is a "serious" crime and it's this perception that I was referring to.
Tony Adams said:

It should not be about value anyway. Bike theft is a crime against the planet, not just the individual bike owner. It should be treated accordingly.

Gabe, 

Could you give us a feeling for what this "look" is?  I'm interested in what kinds of bikes are the most likely to be stolen and if my bikes are in the "danger zone."

Could you show us all a photo of what we are talking about this "look?"

Gabe said:

Vince, some of the bikes are low value. The crooks have a "look"  that they go for. And when we went down to the swap there were a lot of bikes that were similar cause they know what they can fence. Value was a problem on pressing charges when we recovered bikes. ;-(

+1

James BlackHeron said:

Gabe, 

Could you give us a feeling for what this "look" is?  I'm interested in what kinds of bikes are the most likely to be stolen and if my bikes are in the "danger zone."

Could you show us all a photo of what we are talking about this "look?"

Gabe said:

Vince, some of the bikes are low value. The crooks have a "look"  that they go for. And when we went down to the swap there were a lot of bikes that were similar cause they know what they can fence. Value was a problem on pressing charges when we recovered bikes. ;-(

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