Councillors OK mandatory bike registration study to cut meth-related theft

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This article was published 09/01/2019 (2434 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A council committee unanimously supported a proposal Wednesday to consider mandatory registration of bikes at the point of sale.

Councillors on the protection, community services and parks committee directed the administration to examine the idea, which was first raised in December by Coun. Ross Eadie.

Point Douglas activist Sel Burrows spoke to the committee Wednesday morning, encouraging councillors to support the plan and wanted the registration system in place by the spring, but that’s not going to happen. The administration said the earliest a report could be completed for the committee is May. It would go to council in June.

“The big concern for us is going to be the consultation,” Cindy Fernandes, the city’s community services director, whose department will be responsible for the report, told reporters following the meeting.

“There are a large number of stakeholders — the public, the retailers, the Winnipeg Police Service. If the intent is we’re going to reduce the number of thefts, will this actually help in that way? We’d actually like to make a determination or recommendation as whether this will help resolve that issue.”

Eadie and Burrows raised the issue in mid-December, saying bike theft is fuelling the meth crisis. Police acknowledge an increase in stolen bikes, which are taken to chop shops, where they are exchanged for hits of meth.

The city maintains a voluntary bike registry, which went online in April. Fernandes said there are about 10,000 bikes on it now but, that’s believed to be a fraction of the number of bikes across the city.

There is a cost of $6.60 to input data on the city’s online bike registry. Several bikes can be registered per household and three photos of each bike can be posted, as well. If recovered by police, the stolen bikes will be returned without additional charge. Registration can be done at: www.winnipeg.ca/bikeregistry

The city says upwards of 3,000 bikes are stolen every year. While police recover about 1,000 of them, fewer than 100 of them are traced back to their owners and returned.

Burrows and Eadie said the idea originated with a police sergeant, who thought a mandatory registry could deter thieves.

Burrows said when police see someone pulling two or three bikes down the street, they might suspect they are stolen, but since most aren’t registered there is nothing they can do. He and Eadie believe that requiring retailers to register bikes when they are sold will put a dent in the number of thefts and the city’s meth problems.

Fernandes said her staff will conduct a cross-jurisdictional review to determine what other cities are doing with registration, as well as talking to retailers and specialty bike stores.

Fernandes told councillors she wants to be sure her department can devise a system that meets their expectations.

Regardless of the municipal review, Eadie said Winnipeg’s public service shouldn’t be afraid to break new ground.

“There’s no problem with the City of Winnipeg being at the leading edge of this,” he said. “If it doesn’t exist in the rest of Canada, I don’t care.”

The proposal would see retailers who sell bikes brought under the jurisdiction of the Doing Business in Winnipeg bylaw, which currently  regulates pawn shops and used-goods retailers, gold dealers and massage parlours.

While a final report will be brought to the committee in May, Fernandes was instructed to present a verbal status report for the committee’s April meeting.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca