Wednesday Morning Commute - Most Photographed Ride in DC

Good morning.

• Metro Transit Police are "using expensive bicycles and electronic devices" to catch bike thieves. They already caught two at the Prince George's Plaza Metro. (see somewhat satisfying video below)
• Still more photos from the 2011 Tweed ride.
• New plan for Chinatown includes more bike racks - and more fake Chinese stuff.
• Montgomery County is having a hearing on the future CCT/Purple Line on Thursday. It will cost up to $40M (though possibly less) to run the trail through the tunnel, and $1M to connect the trail to the Rock Creek Park Trail. Roger Berliner, Chair of the Montgomery County Council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy, and Environment Committee promises to meet with WABA and other stakeholders before making a decision.
• There's a WABA happy hour that same night.
• FABB has a summery of the VBF fall retreat.
• Richard Layman is skeptical that Baltimore will be able to find a sponsor willing to pay enough in ad revenue to fund their bikeshare program. 

Metro Transit Police Conduct Undercover Operations To Target Bicycle Thieves: MyFoxDC.com

Comments

[Michael H.]

I sure hope the bike is OK in the video. It hit the ground kind of hard. As for the criminals, I don't care about them so much. Hope they enjoy their stay in prison.

DC police should run a similar sting operation downtown, around Farragut Square, Metro Center and Gallery Place.

[Michael H.]

I'm skeptical about Baltimore's bikeshare plan too. Under Armour would be a logical choice. That would actually make me want to buy more UA workout gear. (I already have some of their Cold Gear for winter cycling/running.)

If they can't get a single sponsor, what about a combination sponsorship, along the lines of pro cycling teams? Many cycling teams in the Tour de France have more than one top-level name sponsor: the former Leopard-Trek (now joining with Team RadioShack), HTC-Highroad (expected to dissolve after this year). Hmm, there can be problems, even with co-sponsorship. Those teams don't seem to be able to survive unless they combine with other teams.

Regardless, it could still be worth a shot. Maybe Under Armour-BGE Bikeshare?

[JeffB]

I'm sorry - but leaving an expensive bike unlocked is getting pretty close to entrapment.

The job of police is to catch criminals not to entice people into becoming criminals.

[Richard Layman]

Actually, wrt Baltimore, I think it can be done, but from nonprofits (foundations and health care facilities). It happens that Baltimore has (at least) three very wealthy foundations, and any or all of the three could be enticed.

The funny thing is, when I was the bike and ped planner for Baltimore County, when this came up in the winter of 2010, amongst regional bike planners this was exactly the course of action I recommended, even to the point of specifying the organizations that should be contacted and the positioning arguments. (I won't do it here, but if Nate saved my email, it's probably been forwarded...).

WRT Michael's comments, I did mention UA in my entry, and they would be an outside shot, I don't see how the publicity value would be all that beneficial, unless they move into bike-related clothing. BGE--no way. They are being acquired and this won't be able to make it through all the other stuff they are dealing with in the 180 day time frame.

[washcycle]

This has come up before and I was conflicted. But an MPD officer pointed out that taking something that clearly isn't yours is stealing - whether it is locked up or not. People know better.

[washcycle]

I think the best place to start for sponsorship is places like Kaiser Permanente. They stand to win twice (publicity and increased public health, which saves them money).

[oboe]

@JeffB:

I'm sorry - but leaving an expensive bike unlocked is getting pretty close to entrapment.

Fuck. That.

Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations. Was the bike thief confused about whose bike it was? No. Then fuck him.

We could argue that a well-dressed petite woman talking on an iPhone in a deserted Metro car is "entrapment" too.

Or we could start using the tools at our disposal to start identifying the thieves in our community, and making sure they know there might be some legal repercussions to illegal behavior.

This bait-bike program strikes me in a similar way to photo enforcement of speeding on residential streets. First, what the fuck took so long. Second, why don't we see more of this?

[oboe]

Passed out girl in a short skirt? Entrapment!

Sorry, that whole line of argument just bugs me.

[dayglo]

Seriously, JeffB?

You're one step short of blaming the victim.

If your bike gets stolen because you didn't lock it up well enough to stop a thief, was that "entrapment?"

[dayglo]

Just did a little reading on the legal issue of entrapment. There's absolutely no way that this operation would qualify as entrapment. That defense would be rejected in court.

Bike thieves can go to hell, or at least prison.

[jeff]

I would certainly stop short of calling it entrapment, but you're kidding yourself if you think it will do anything to stop bike theft. Try securing an expensive bike up by just the frame with a tiny cable lock , leaving the $500+ wheels unlocked. See who takes the wheels and/or comes by with cutters for the cable lock. There's a much greater likelihood that person has stolen a bike before or would again.

[Ren]

I'm as concerned about my bikes as anyone, but I would feel a lot better if the decoy bike had a crappy lock on it. Is everyone really ok with a stupid 20 year old who thought he would take a bike for a joy-ride and return it being prosecuted the same as someone who destroys a bike lock and takes a bike for real? (Granted, probably not the case with the guard adult, but I'm not accepting Fox's word on that.) I can't rule out that I would stop with concern upon seeing a bike totally unlocked and possibly move it for some reason. What if I see an untended backpack and decide to pick it up to take it to lost-and-found?

[washcycle]

That we aren't catching the professional thieves is a much more worrisome concern.

[charlie]

That's not even close to entrapment.

Stopping theft -- or justice? Until we start treating this as a crime, and a serious one, bike theft won't go away.

In terms of sponsorships, the multiple sponsor model is a good one. But it will be a supplemental revenue stream.

[JeffB]

I agree that the police sting was probably done in such a way that it meets the letter of the law to avoid being entrapment. Doesn't mean that I have to like it.

But what we don't see on this video is what is the intent of the person taking the bike. An expensive unlocked bike in a public place is an anomaly.

What if Mr Good Citizen is walking by, notices the bike carelessly left there, and decides to take the bike to the station attendant for safekeeping in order to PREVENT it from being stolen.

The way this sting is setup he doesn't get 2 steps before he is tackled and handcuffed.

Now he has to go in front of a judge and hope he is believed.

Why did the police not throw a simple cheap cable lock around the bike? Why did they pick an expensive bike?

Because 1) they are too lazy to wait for a person who INTENDS to steal a bike and 2) they want to charge the person with a felony and mess the rest of their life up.

If you still don't see my point - then what if the police had left a wallet lying on the ground? Pick it up and you're arrested! Same difference.

And if you still are having a hard time understanding why I think the police need to work a little harder to catch real criminals then listen to this story on This American Life. It's Act One - Neighborhood Watch.

[JeffB]

I think Ren and I are in agreement. Let's catch the guys, with tools, who are cutting locks and stealing bikes.

[Ryan Newill]

@Michael H

Not to pick nits, but a couple of your pro team names further illuminate the difficulties of the current sponsorship climate: Leopard and Highroad aren't sponsors. They're the names of the management companies that run the teams. Neither team could find a paying sponsor to take one of their two title spots, despite being among the top teams in the sport.

[washcycle]

Picking up a wallet would be different, in part because people don't generally store their wallets on the sidewalk. People routinely leave their bike unattended in public. It would be quite reasonable to pick up a wallet in the hope of returning it to the rightful owner. But one hoping to turn a bike in would not try to ride it to the metro booth like this person did.

I agree that a cheap cable lock would do more to catch the pro thieves. I don't have a problem with using expensive bikes to get them on felonies. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

[JeffB]

People routinely leave their bike unattended in public

Really? Around here? This sting wasn't about catching rampant bike thieves who use tools to cut locks off or the eye for an expensive part that is easily removed.

No - this was about making the "statistics" look good for the public by inducing 2 hapless individuals to take a bike left for the taking.

Meanwhile bike thefts, by real criminals, continue to rise ...

[washcycle]

I leave my bike unattended all the time. Pretty much any time I go someplace on my bike I then leave my bike outside and I go inside, thus leaving it unattended.

To be clear, I think the thieves caught in this video were not merely opportunistic thieves.

I don't think this is about statistics, but I do think it's about efficiency. They'd have to buy a bunch of cheap cable locks and relock the bike between thefts, and wait longer for each bust.

Question: Do you think a professional bike thief would see a $5000 bike left unlocked and walk past it? I don't. So this sweep will catch those thieves, plus opportunistic thieves, plus the rare person who happened to have a moment of weakness at the wrong time.

I doubt they're all treated the same. They'll be searched. And a pro will have tools on them. A pro might have a record. Maybe they then search their homes and find more bikes. Who knows? But the idea of sweeping up everyone who would take a bike that isn't theirs and then figuring out what you have is a little like fishing. Some fish you throw back, and others you keep.

[JeffB]

Question: Do you think a professional bike thief would see a $5000 bike left unlocked and walk past it? I don't. So this sweep will catch those thieves, plus opportunistic thieves, plus the rare person who happened to have a moment of weakness at the wrong time.

But that would be a terribly inefficient way to go about catching professional bike thieves if that were your goal. How many opportunistic thieves would you have to arrest and process first?

If I believed that most bike thefts were the work of a few professionals (and there is some evidence that is the case) then I'd want to adopt a tactic that targets them and mostly them.

Perhaps a $5000 bike locked near a university with a hidden GPS on it. If the bike is moved, senor goes off, and police respond.

The professionals aren't hanging around Metro in hopes some one drops a bike in their lap. They know where the good bikes are. Many of the high-rise apartment buildings are repeatedly hit by these guys on a near weekly basis.

[jeff]

So long as the police are only staging a crime of opportunity rather than a real sting that would require more resources on their part then it is simply security theater.

Not to mention the class and racial component in choosing PG Plaza. They could have just as easily caught college kids stealing unattended bikes just up the road at the College Park station. Or at Tenleytown/AU.

Does the WMATA's rider's advisory council ever meet with Metro PD? This might be a good issue for them to discuss.

[washcycle]

The professionals aren't hanging around Metro in hopes some one drops a bike in their lap. They know where the good bikes are. Many of the high-rise apartment buildings are repeatedly hit by these guys on a near weekly basis.

Perhaps not, but these are METRO TRANSIT police officers. So they're going after the criminals in their jurisdiction. They can't do a sting at an apartment or a university. As to efficiency, I'm not so sure that this is less efficient. Processing the "little fish" could still lead to valuable information (where were you going to sell this bike? to Whom? etc...). And there's no indication that you'd get fewer big fish.

Jeff brings up a legitimate concern about how they're choosing stations to target. I suspect it's based on frequency of crimes and having a suitable layout for the sting. But I don't see how this is security theater. Unless you think pro bike thieves are going to walk past this bike for another.

[Richard Layman]

KP is only going to consider such an arrangement in markets where they have a strong presence. Baltimore is not one of those markets.

[JJJJJ]

Entrapment would be if a cop stands by and says "hey kid, check that bike out. Some dumbass just left it there, and hes been gone for 10 minutes. Can you believe it? Its got to be worth at least a grand. I'd take it, but I dont ride. Go and take it, Ive got your back"

[jeff]

I say its security theater because it will do little to nothing to prevent actual bike theft. The problem at Metro stations isn't impulsive ne'er do wells snatching unattended bikes, it's premeditated crooks with tools cutting through inadequate locks.

[washcycle]

But jeff, wouldn't those premeditated crooks with tools - when they see an expensive bike unlocked - try to steal that bike? Wouldn't this system also catch them?

Imagine we put crooks into three groups.

1. Pros who steal more than 1 bike per week.
2. Hobbyists who steal more than 1 bike per year
3. The ethically weak who can't walk by an unlocked, nice bike without trying to steal it.

This system would catch people from all three groups. Putting a lock on a bike would probably not catch anyone in the 3rd group and less of the others (because it will become a less appealing target). How is catching bike thieves theater?

[Contrarian]

If your goal is to reduce the number of bike thefts you get the most bang for your buck by arresting people from group 1. A still that is equally likely to ensnare the three groups isn't nearly as effective as one targeted at group 3.

In fact, I'd argue that group 3 is so much larger than group 1 that an operation like this has negligible impact on the number of bikes stolen.

[JeffB]

Here's how Metro transit should combat the real bike thieves.

Lock & Track.

[washcycle]

Yes, the lock and track does look more efficient. It only takes a few thousand dollars worth of equipment that must work reliably and the time to perform a cross-town pursuit to make the exact same arrest.

I'm not sure that I think group 3 is so much larger than the other groups. If you'd argue it, then let's hear the argument. Hell Matt Yglesias watched as people walked by a $20 bill laying on the ground, refusing to pick it up because it wasn't theirs.

While it's true that you get the most bang for your buck by arresting people from group 1, I'm not sure that locking the bike up necessarily means you're going to arrest more people from group 1. A higher percentage of your arrests will be group 1, but that doesn't mean the total number is higher.

My bike was taken a few years ago when I left it outside unlocked for a few minutes when I went inside. Was it not stolen? Was the person who took it not a bike thief?

[JeffB]

So PG County Metro has a lot of crime including bike theft. What percentage of that bike theft was unlocked, unattended $5000 bikes and what percentage was from bikes secured in some manner?

If there is a rash of safe cracking we wouldn't presume to catch the bank robber(s) by leaving the vault open and arresting everybody who wonders in would we? Doing that would probably just net us the town drunk, maybe the pickpocket, and perhaps the county executive's wife :)

Metro probably gets some grief about the amount bike theft at their stations.

So to show they are making a good faith effort they STAGE a scene in the laziest possible manner to generate themselves an arrest. But are they arresting someone who actually steals bikes regularly or at all? Or did they just happen to manufacture an arrest for their stats?

I bet if I left that same bike parked outside BCC High School I just as quickly would have it taken. Does that mean BCC is rife with bike thieves?

[M.V. Jantzen]

We don't yet know if the guy had pro bike theft tools, but we do know he had a lookout! That doesn't sounds like a heat-of-the-moment crime to me. And while entrapment isn't my favorite police method, it's more annoying when used in regards to prostitution and drugs, things that shouldn't be illegal in the first place. I agree with @JJJJJ here. (And yes lock and track would be even better.)

Can you imagine how tough it is to track a real bike theft? What do you do when someone says their bike was stolen ... a few hours ago? You can review the blurry figures on the blurry tape, you can enter the registration no in a database... what else? You have to catch these guys in the act, and when you have a high-crime area, decoys are a smart idea.