(Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Bike bylaw

Council considers bylaw change to address bike theft

Jun 1, 2021 | 3:36 PM

Prince Albert city council is considering a bylaw change that would allow police to seize and impound any bicycle that has had its serial number altered.

The measure is aimed at reducing theft and making it easier to return stolen bikes to their rightful owners, but at least one councillor says it doesn’t go far enough.

At Monday night’s meeting, Mayor Greg Dionne told council serial numbers are key to identifying bikes. However a two-fold problem emerges when owners often don’t record their unique number and thieves regularly remove the marking.

According to police, of the 26 bicycles stolen in Prince Albert so far this year, only four had serial number entered into the service’s property subsystem.

“It just gives us a better tool to enforce the rules and to recover stolen bikes,” Dionne said of the proposed bylaw change. “And also to check people at three o’clock in the morning when they’re riding a bike with no lights on and everything else. When we do stop them, we can now also check to see if that bike is stolen.”

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The new proposed measure would be coupled with an awareness campaign addressing bicycle theft prevention and asking residents to input their serial numbers into a centralized system.

Asked by paNOW what people should do if they are legally in possession of a bicycle without a serial number, Dionne said they should contact police.

“We are coming up with a mechanism that we’ll give you one,” he said.

Stricter measures on the way?

Meanwhile Coun. Blake Edwards supported requiring all bicycles to have unaltered serial numbers or be subject to seizure, but said he wasn’t sure the proposed bylaw change went far enough.

“Residents are ticked and frustrated,” he said, adding stolen bikes are often used to commit other petty crimes.

“They’re using these bikes to get around at night… and they check every damn car door,” he said.

“It’s time that we address this, you know there’s probably 30 of these turkeys running around wreaking havoc in our city and we need to stop them,” he continued. “I’m almost prepared to put a ban on bikes after midnight.”

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alison.sandstrom@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @alisandstrom