Todd Hubler
Bicycle theft is big business in Madison. In March, more than 1,000 bikes were recovered after the bust of a single ring. Now, the UW-Madison Police Department is battling the problem by trying to snare thieves with “bait bikes.”
The innovative program, which allows police to track thieves and their booty in real time, has become a national model. During its first year, reported campus bicycle thefts dropped by 40%.
Bike theft can be devastating. “It’s a big deal for most people, even if it’s not your main form of transportation, even if it’s not a valuable bicycle,” says Arthur Ross, Madison’s pedestrian and bicycle coordinator.
The Madison Police Department received 368 reports of stolen bicycles in 2013, 333 in 2014, and 84 so far this year. That doesn’t include campus reports. The UW Police estimate more than 16,000 bikes have been stolen in Dane County in the last decade, and that fewer than half of those thefts have been reported to law enforcement.
On March 3, after nearly a year’s worth of investigation, UW Police busted a bicycle theft operation that spanned four municipalities in two counties, including Madison.
It was a rare success. “Prior to 2008 I think we had an arrest or two for bike theft each year. That was about it,” recalls UW Police Officer John Deering. “If you look at the city’s statistics, and those across the nation, you’ll see that’s pretty typical. Most people don’t even bother reporting it.”
Starting in 2007, Deering (an avid cyclist) and others in the department began researching other agencies’ approaches to the problem. Toronto had experimented with GPS transponders hidden inside bikes set out as bait for thieves, but only as a fallback.
“They would still have somebody watching the bike from a distance,” says Deering. GPS was used only “in the event that that person lost the police tail, or so the person following them would have a better chance of finding the bike later on.”
UW Police rejected the full concept. “We didn’t really see the value of putting a GPS unit on a bike if we were going to sit on it anyway and watch it,” he says. “We wanted something that we could put out there and completely ignore — unless it was getting stolen.”
They took the GPS part of Toronto’s system and invented a new approach. Some details have to be kept vague to keep potential crooks ignorant.
Budget Bicycle Center, which Deering praises as “a major asset for us,” allows the department to borrow bikes of all makes, models and prices. After being fitted with GPS devices, they’re left in downtown and campus areas, usually secured with a lock.
“On occasion they are not [locked],” Deering says. “But that is generally when we have a reoccurring problem area.”
Each bait bike sits inside a small, imaginary area designated by a “geo fence,” an electronic boundary on a map. If the bait bike is moved, an alert is automatically sent out. That alone doesn’t indicate that the bicycle is being stolen; bikes and bike racks get jostled, for example. If the bait bike is moved outside the geo fence, however, that’s a different matter. Another alert goes out.
“Then we just log on, click on the bike we want, and watch it move on the map,” says Deering. “We track in real time. We can track them on any computer. We can also track them from the computers in our squad cars. We track ’em and find ’em.”
The program launched in the spring of 2008 and was an immediate success. “We put one bike out the very first time we did it, and in the first week it was stolen two or three times,” says Deering. “We were all in shock.”
The bait bikes are just half of the program. The other half is the distribution of stickers to cyclists, to apply to their own bikes. The sticker warns that it might be affixed to a bait bike.
Last fall, the department distributed 2,500 stickers to help deter bike theft. Students are also urged to register their bikes with the city, which can aid the recovery of a stolen bike. Registration costs $10 for four years, and can be done online.
UW Police are often consulted by other agencies nationwide that want to start their own bait bike programs. “You name it,” Deering says. “A lot of universities. Some Texas agencies. I got a call from Salt Lake City police. They’re going to start doing it.”
Free bait bike stickers are available at the UW-Madison Police Department, 1429 Monroe St. For information on registering a bike, visit cityofmadison.com/bikeMadison.