Cycle Theft

York is a cycling city, and has a far higher level of cycle usage than in the majority of UK cities. Cycling is good for the city in terms of the environment and the health of our residents. However, a proliferation of bikes can mean rich pickings for any would-be thieves.

Unfortunately over 1000 bikes are stolen each year in York. A significant proportion of these have been left insecure - bikes that haven’t been locked at all, locked inadequately, ‘secured’ with a poor quality lock or locked to themselves or an insecure object.

It is fair to say that in the above cases cyclists make it easy for a thief to walk off with their bike. Cycle theft statistics could be radically improved if people took more care over the security of their bikes.

On those occasions when the police do manage to retrieve stolen bikes, it is often very difficult to trace the bike to its original owner or to prove ownership as the bike has not been registered or security marked in any way.

Safer York Partnership has been successful in reducing the level of cycle theft in York over recent years by co-ordinating the efforts of partner agencies through a multi-agency Cycle Theft Task Group, which meets on a regular basis to monitor crime levels and to deliver crime reduction initiatives.

The Safer York Partnership is also proud to announce the start of Operation Spoke from January 2010. Operation Spoke is a multi-partnership operation aimed at security-marking all bikes within the City of York. For more information or too see any of our security-marking events and dates, please click here.

In the past 3 years we have managed to reduce cycle theft in the city significantly. We are committed to continuing this downward trend but we can only do so with your help.

On this website we will advise you on how you can improve your bike security so you can work with us in continuing to reduce cycle theft in York. You can also find out about some of the partnership initiatives and how they can benefit you.