TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to develop a free, voluntary bike registration program for Long Beach residents by partnering with Project 529, and develop an education campaign to inform residents of this service and the benefits of registering their bicycles.
DISCUSSION
On June 20, 2017 the City Council gave staff direction to produce a report on the feasibility of developing a voluntary, online application-based bicycle registry program. This came about as a result of pressing and continuous concerns from residents about the problem of bicycle thefts. Long Beach is a leading city in providing bike infrastructure and encouraging the use of bicycles in daily transportation for commuting and recreation. However, persistent issues of bike theft undermine residents' faith and support for our mobility and recreation related goals. Reported bike thefts in Long Beach averaged over 700 instances a year between 2011 and 2016,1 and statistics show the numbers of actual thefts is likely much higher. This reality is echoed by our residents on a regular basis. Without registration, it is difficult for law enforcement to (1) confirm suspected theft in a certain situation, (2) seize property that has been acquired unlawfully, (3) arrest suspects for theft, (4) successfully submit a case to the City Prosecutor for a criminal filing, or (5) return bicycles to their rightful owners.
On March 8, 2018 staff provided a report back to City Council with recommended next steps on how best Long Beach could adopt a bike registration program. The recommendation from staff was to participate in a national bicycle registry operated by Project 529, a bike registration organization. Participating in this program would give the City and Long Beach Police Department access to data from many jurisdictions nationwide as well as allowing law enforcement from other agencies to have access to Long beach data.
Currently Project 529's database has over 400,000 bicycles in their re...
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