DutchNews, December 14, 2017
 |
| Photo: Depositphotos.com |
The use of decoy bikes fitted with police GPS tracking
systems has reduced bike theft by up to 50% in the places where they are being
used, economist Ben Vollaard told Thursday’s Telegraaf.
The paper says
Vollaard’s research at Tilburg University shows that ‘professional criminals’
are more likely to disappear when the special bikes are being used.
Vollaard
looked at 14 places where the decoy bikes were placed, including Dordrecht and
Gorinchem. In total, the decoy bikes were used 1,612 times last year and 1,220
arrests were made as a result, the paper said.
Police currently have a pool of
300 bikes at their disposal, of which around 70 are electric bikes. All are new
bikes from popular brands such as Gazelle or Batavus.
By the beginning of
October this year, police had received 61,063 reports of stolen bikes, down
more than 13,000 on the 2016 total.
‘I know that everyone says no-one bothers
to report a stolen bike but these are the only figures we have to base policy
on,’ said Mogjan Yavari of Centrum Fietsendiefstal, which unites police,
insurers and manufacturers.
No comments:
Post a Comment