New RUPD program baits thieves

By Bhagwat Kumar     2/20/13 6:00pm

Bike theft is a constant, looming specter in the mind of any bicycle-owning college student. For most students whose primary method of transportation is a bike, losing this vehicle, even for a temporary period of time, can be disastrous. Aside from making the commute to and from class a more time-consuming endeavor, losing a bike can also limit a student's ability to carry out even the most basic off-campus errands. Additionally, if a student lives off campus, simply getting to school each day can become an unforeseen challenge. As a result, the Rice University Police Department has bolstered its theft-prevention measures, recently instituting a bait bike program to help catch and arrest potential bike thieves. 

"Bike theft is by far one of our most common thefts on campus," Capt. Clemente Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez said this problem is not unique to Rice and that it is endemic to all college campuses. Because bikes are so ubiquitous on college campuses and because most university campuses are easily accessible, they become prime targets for small-time thieves in the neighboring areas. 

---

---

According to Rodriguez, a large number of the bikes stolen on campus are taken by the same offenders or group of offenders. While there is no overarching organization between the perpetrators, many display similar tendencies and motivations. There is a subset of small-time criminals who often target college campuses as easy sites for petty theft, and these are the criminals the "bait bike" program is supposed to target and deter. 

The program, as its name suggests, consists of several unsecured bikes placed strategically around campus, each ostensibly similar to a regular, student-owned bike. The crucial difference, however, is that each of the bait bikes has a hidden, attached 

GPS device that notifies RUPD when the bike is moved, allowing the officer on duty to track the bike as the thief attempts to ride it away. 

The bikes have been accumulated by RUPD over time and then renovated to entice potential thieves into taking them. RUPD purchased the GPS system it now uses toward the middle of last year, according to Rodriguez, and has been implementing the devices since then. Rodriguez credited Sgt. Gary Spears, head of special operations for RUPD, with implementing the program here at Rice.

"Really the biggest goal is to make the bike thieves out there aware that we're proactive in terms of discouraging them from taking bikes," Rodriguez said. 

Because most of the bike thieves are repeat offenders, the primary impact from the program will be to dissuade them from attempting to steal bikes from Rice. As the news that there are bikes intentionally being left unsecured around campus as bait spreads, potential thieves will hopefully become more and more wary of seeking out unlocked bikes at Rice because of the added probability of being caught.

Although catching and arresting potential thieves is another goal of the program, the relatively minor punishments they receive in court often are not enough to deter them from stealing again. 

"We've actually arrested one guy three times for stealing a bait bike," Rodriguez said. 

The reason for this seeming oddity is that most bike thieves do not receive major punishments. Because most bikes are valued under $500, stealing a bike is classified as a misdemeanor, and perpetrators usually only receive anywhere between 10 and 50 days in jail as punishment for their crimes. 

"If they steal a few bikes and then get caught and do 10 days in jail, that's not a heavy penalty to discourage them from stealing bikes," Rodriguez said. 

Most of the criminals usually serve their sentences and continue to steal afterward on the assumption that the potential profits from selling stolen bikes outweigh the risk of getting caught again. According to Rodriguez, the majority of the thefts are simply for a quick reimbursement, and the stolen bikes are usually sold to nearby pawn shops for cash to fund other illicit activity or habits. 

"The bike thieves get out of jail so quickly that they are going to continue to come back and steal bikes, since they may get two or three before we are able to get them," Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez said the rationale behind the bait bike program is that if criminals are aware of the planted bikes, they will understand that the risk of being caught stealing a bike is higher than usual, making stealing a bike more costly, and therefore less attractive, proposition than without the bait bikes. 

The program has been a success so far, with RUPD placing bikes in varying locations based on recent theft trends. One such location is the BioScience Research Collaborative, where RUPD has arrested thieves attempting to steal parked bikes on four separate occasions.

In general, the thieves simply take the bikes and attempt to ride them away to safety. Rodriguez said RUPD has caught thieves from a variety of locations, ranging from the medical center area to all the way down the bayou. Once a bait bike is moved, a message is sent to the RUPD officer on duty along with a map allowing him or her to track the thief. The officer can access the map on his phone to catch up with the thief and eventually arrest the perpetrator, recovering the stolen bike. So far, RUPD has had a 100 percent success rate with the stolen bikes; each of the eight times one has been moved, its taker has been caught.

Still, despite the early successes of the program, Rodriguez stressed that the community's greatest defense against bike theft is constant vigilance and safety on the part of all students, faculty and staff, especially those who are bike owners. 

"Our best tool to combat bike theft is students doing a few simple things like registering their bikes, using a U-bolt lock instead of cable locks, which are really easy to defeat, and also using the U-bolt locks properly once they have them," Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez said that because of the number of bike thieves in the area, and the relative facility with which campus can be accessed, preventing any theft is nearly impossible if a large number of bikes are left unsecured or poorly secured. 

As a result, RUPD has taken several other measures to help minimize the number of bike thefts on campus. Firstly, students can buy U-bolt locks from RUPD for $15, which is cheaper than their price on the open market. RUPD sells these locks at wholesale prices, with the objective being increased bike protection for students, not profit. 

"We're selling them at cost because we're just trying to get students to have the best locks possible to prevent bike theft," Rodriguez said. 

Once students have U-bolt locks, they must be sure to consistently secure their bikes properly. 

"I know students are sometimes in a rush, but it takes just a few extra minutes to make sure the bike is secured," Rodriguez said. 

While it may not seem to make a huge difference, taking the extra minute or two to properly lock a bike using a U-bolt lock can be the deciding factor in preventing bike theft. Rodriguez said students should take care to lock the U-bolt to the actual frame of the bike, as opposed to just a wheel. 

The reason for this is that many bikes have a quick-release system which allows for wheels to be easily detached from the main frame of the bicycle, allowing thieves to separate the bike from the wheel that is locked to the rack. Then, the thief need only find a replacement wheel before riding off with the stolen bike. 

"You want to lock the U-bolt to the frame, not to the wheel," Rodriguez said. "Sometimes, the wheel is locked to [a] rack, and the thieves will just take a tire from a different bike and steal the bike by putting a second tire on it." 

Finally, students can also register their bikes with RUPD, providing another line of defense against possible theft. To do so, students just need to go online to the RUPD website and follow the link relating to bike registration. Once registration is completed, the owner will receive a decal sticker containing a registration number to place on the bike. This number is associated with a description of the bike, its value and its serial number and allows RUPD to search nearby pawn shops for the stolen bike. 

By taking these relatively easy steps, students can greatly reduce the risk of having their bikes stolen.  

"I can't stress enough that while [the bait bike program] has been successful, our best tool will be the community taking basic steps to secure their bikes," Rodriguez said. 

Another easy step students can take to prevent bike theft is to simply notify RUPD of any suspicious activity taking place near bike racks, especially later at night or by a person who very clearly appears to not be a student. 

Rodriguez said RUPD has actually arrested thieves after a student called with a tip that there was a person spending an unusual amount of time at a bike rack or who appeared to be searching for an unlocked bike. Even if the perpetrator is not caught in the act of stealing a bike, he or she can still be arrested for trespassing, again potentially preventing them from returning. 

Most thieves simply find racks with a large number of bikes and search through them until they find one that is unsecured or poorly secured.  So by just taking the time to lock their bikes and notifying the authorities when someone appears to be looking for unsecured bikes, students can eradicate a vast majority of the bike thefts that occur on campus. 

"If we get cooperation from the community to follow those simple steps, we will definitely see a decrease in the amount of bikes that are stolen," Rodriguez said. 

---