With an uptick in bike thefts in South Sacramento over the past few years, the Mack Road Partnership and the Florin Road Partnership are working in conjunction with the Police Department to implement a “bait bike” program to reduce the number of thefts in the area.   This program was implemented in late 2013 in other parts of the city of Sacramento and has proven to be successful. 

Over the last year, there have been 142 reported bike thefts in the south area of Sacramento.  As a part of the larger effort to curb bike thefts along the Mack Road and Florin Road corridors, both partnerships purchased several “bait bikes” for the Police Department to deploy.  A local bicycle manufacturer gave the partnership a reduced rate for the bikes as a way to assist in the program.  

These “bait bikes” are equipped with GPS tracking devices and will be locked in random locations at various times in South Sacramento.   Some bait bike deployment locations will be where large numbers of bicycle thefts have occurred as well as areas which have experienced business thefts, vehicle thefts and break-ins.  When the bicycle is moved, officers will be alerted to the activation and will attempt to find the thief.  The bicycles are valued at more than $1,000, making it a felony charge if convicted.   

If your bike happens to get stolen, it is very important to report this type of activity so the Police Department can identify patterns or trends in thefts and deploy the equipment in the most effective way possible.  The final result, although not always seen, is often arrests, whether it is in relation to the original bike theft or for other occurrences. 

The Police Department also introduced an online registry called “Ride On!” which allows bicycle owners to register the serial number of their bikes at http://rideon.sacpd.org. 

With this kind of teamwork, we hope to see an ongoing and significant reduction in bicycle thefts in South Sacramento.