Decatur Police to Offer Bike Registration at Book Festival

Sign up for the Decatur-Avondale Estates Patch newsletter!

---

Photo Credit: Decatur Police Department

With the rash of bicycle thefts in Decatur this year, police are offering local cyclists an opportunity to register their bicycles in a secure database which can help investigators recover stolen bikes and catch the thieves.

“There have been 26 bicycles reported stolen in the City of Decatur since June 1,” Police spokeswoman Jennifer Ross said Thursday. Speaking of bicycles stolen between July 1 and Aug. 11, Ross said, “The majority of the stolen bicycles were not secured and on residential property. In four cases, the suspect(s) left behind another bicycle, two of which were determined to be stolen.”

To help stem the tide of the bicycle thefts, police are offering a free bicycle registration session this weekend. Cyclists who ride to the Decatur Book Festival from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday can have their bikes entered into the secure police database. The registration event will be held at the North McDonough Turnaround near the bike valet.

Bicycle registration is a quick and simple process. Officers will record the bicycle’s make, model, and serial number, get contact information from the bike’s owner, and then place a numbered decal on the bicycle and take a picture of it. All of this information will be fed into a police-only database that can be called up by officers investigating stolen bicycle cases, Ross said.

“We have had similar trends in recent years and been able to identify a suspect, make an arrest and recover multiple stolen bicycles because one owner provided us with their serial number,” Ross said.