Police say crackdown has led to 33% drop in bike thefts in Woking town centre

Surrey Police say a crackdown has led to a 33% decrease in bike thefts in Woking town centre.

The initiative was piloted by Woking’s Neighbourhood Policing Team between June 2020 and February 2021.

During this period, the number of bikes stolen in Woking town centre dropped by 27 down to 55 reports, compared to the same time last year where 82 thefts were reported.

Officers carried out different tactics including:

• Data gathering of theft hotspots

• Targeted patrols in these hotspots

• Educational and preventative messaging via social media and Facebook Live

• A dedicated bike marking event - bikes are given a police issued sticker with a unique reference number which is then logged with the bike register and can be used to locate it if it is stolen.

Woking Borough Commander, Inspector Dave Bentley, said:

“Bike thefts were a big concern amongst our local community and is something that was being reported to us more and more.

"The town centre seemed to be the main hotspot of these thefts, so as a local neighbourhood policing team we took these concerns on board and decided to come up with a targeted problem solving solution.

“The initiative has been a huge success and we have seen a significant decrease in the amount of bike thefts in the area.

"For context, the number of bike thefts has risen by 44% nationally, so we have managed to buck this trend. The co-operation of the local community has been great and crucial to the success of the project.

“Going forward the local policing team will continue with many of the actions that were trialled in the initiative to keep the number of bike thefts as low as possible.”

• surrey and east hampshire
• woking