“As a police officer I would hope you would have known more about what I meant by taking the front wheel off. Locking skewers will prevent your wheels from getting stolen but not your whole bike. You take the wheel off the front then lock both wheels and frame to a bike rack. Thieves general pop the lock on the bike hop on and ride away. To take the extra step to attach the front wheel is a major deterrent. Has nothing to do with locking skewers.”

I was more thinking that theft of bike parts and wheels when I suggested that. I see the skeletons of bikes all the time with the front wheel missing. People will walk off with bike wheels. And you can certainly lock the wheel along with the frame the way you describe, but that’s only means that the person who steals the bike is going to be slightly slower as they walk off with your bike. IMHO I’d lock the wheel to the frame or the handle bar to the frame and the frame to whatever fixed object I can find. Handcuffs are handy for this.

“I find it hard to believe it is illegal for a police officer to question somebody on bike that appears to be stolen. Actually i’m sure most of us that appreciate their bikes would actually be satisfied if asked. If you simply turn your head and say there is nothing we can do about it, then shame on you and unfortunate for those who work hard for our things and depend on the police to protect them.

I had to convince the officer that this bike was stolen and the officer himself even admitted he knew the guy and that he had been on many different bikes recently. I am glad there are a few bikers out there looking out for each other. bikes are expensive and most are over $1000 bucks making them not some petty theft.”

What you have to realize is that I can stop and talk to someone, but in order for me to take any substantial action beyond making contact with them, I need to be able to articulate beyond a vague gut feeling that the bike is stolen. Yes, I know that the clip-less pedal bike being operated by the local drug boys is not theirs, but how would you articulate seizing a bike absent a complainant on scene or specific knowledge of a particular stolen bike? I can’t lawfully detain someone for hours and then pour through a stack of stolen bike reports in hopes of finding a report that matches that bike. You can wag your finger and say “For shame!” that I’m not doing anything, but I ultimately have to be accountable for my actions and if I start seizing bikes and it turns out that the one I seized was actually someones’, I’m civilly and potentially criminally liable for Fourth Amendment violations.

“You have to take things seriously at the bottom to control the top. Don’t tell the owners and the victims its our fault that our bikes get stolen. How about a little police presence and muscle to deter the theft from happening in the first place.”

Nobody is saying that its the fault of victims that their things get stolen. The sole person responsible is the person who stole it. However, people don’t seem think that there’s any responsibility to be smart and minimize the chances of being victims to crime by taking simple steps. I can’t count the number of times people are shocked that they left their car running to run into the store and came out and their car was gone, or that they left their MacBook sitting out on the passenger seat of their car and came back hours later to find it stolen, or someone decided to secure their expensive vintage bike to a street sign with a cheap cable lock and came out to find their bike gone, or were walking down the street during school dismissal with their eyes buried in their iPhone and had it snatched.

As for Police presence, there are lots of lazy officers but there are also lots of motivated ones. It’s also hard to be proactive when you’re running from call to call with low manpower. Try doing a ride along and you’ll see how often there are so few cops working per shift.