Hackney Cycle Crime Unit

The fact that they are episodic is a reason to act

Oh, absolutely. The fact that action was taken is probably why they have been episodic.

I guess if it's a violent crime (injuries or not) it may cease to fall under Maz's 'jurisdiction' and be escalated or moved on to someone else.

Hi,
Rascal, yes you are right it falls into our Task Force remit with deals with Robbery. I spoke to the DCI in our intelegence unit who is happy for me to make comment on here with regard to the issue. We are well aware of the trend and yes as pointed out above this problem does seem to come up every few years in this exact spot. There have been recourses tasked with this problem and there have been arrests made.
I will also look into what input if any our small unit can have.
I will make sure that I can get as much information as possible for the next Hackney LCC meeting and perhaps Oliver could reprt back on here.
Maz

bump for this thread: Velocio please make it a sticky, this kind of thing is exactly what we need so lets give it maximum exposure and support.

@Maz, if theres anything I can do to help....

Bump - Agreed

Look forward to seeing you at the next meeting, Maz. For anyone else who wants to come along (you don't have to live in the borough or be an LCC member to attend), the meeting will be on Wednesday 3rd November at 7:30. Further details here:

http://www.hackney-cyclists.org.uk/meetings.htm

Just want to say a big big thank you to Maz at Hackney Cycle Crime Unit and Greg (Mary Chain). Maz had contacted Greg as described in the first post about a load of bikes that were confiscated after he had reported his own bike stolen. Thanks to both of them, this forum and the guys at Shop Fourteen, I got my bike back today, sprayed and with some slightly dodgy new parts, but my bike none the less.

Cheers to you all, the bike was stolen after some silly carelessness on my behalf, I had completely and sadly written it off, but as of today my faiths renewed. Greg, I can't thank you enough, I really hope things work out for you and you get your own back!

Thanks again and I really encourage everyone to support the unit and report any stolen bikes!

Thanks Maz for this iniciative, this is what we need. If anything that I can do, I'd love to help.

I'm in for the meeting on Wednesday.

Glad to see a thread has been started....I guess the link below is old news news. Doing a good job so far. I guess register register register is the operative word.
http://www.hackneyhive.co.uk/index/2010/10/success-for-unit-tackling-cycle-theft-in-hackney/

Hi,
As I mentioned above, I have looked into the issue raised around the cycle path on Northchurch Terrace to see if there is anything our new unit can do on top of the extra patrols etc.

The fact that this problem rears its head again and again suggests that environmental factors have an effect and possibly the layout etc.

We have liased with Hackney Council with regard to the issue and they have agreed to act on our suggestions if they possibly can.

As much as we have had a look and will be suggesting cutting back bushes and improving lighting we would like to know any ideas that we could take to the council from members of this forum have who perhaps use the path on a daily basis?

Many thanks
Maz

Thanks Maz for this iniciative, this is what we need. If anything that I can do, I'd love to help.

I'm in for the meeting on Wednesday.

Will be good to see you there, Lor!

Glad to see a thread has been started....I guess the link below is old news news. Doing a good job so far. I guess register register register is the operative word.
http://www.hackneyhive.co.uk/index/2010/10/success-for-unit-tackling-cycle-theft-in-hackney/

Register is certainly one of the operative words, but even if all the bikes in the world were registered and theft stayed the same, the police would be left with an impossible job of trying to get all those bikes back to their owners. Prevention is key, disrupting the thieves, and making stealing bikes harder for them. It must be harder for them to advertise stolen bikes for sale, for instance. There's a lot of work still to come, but we've kicked it off, and I'm sure we'll see results in due course. In the LCC, we'll continue to run our anti-theft campaign and working closely with the police on getting to grips with the problem.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23892639-bike-crime-pcs-ride-to-the-rescue.do

Good work, Maz.

I've just updated the 'What to do if your bike gets stolen' thread OP with info about the Hackney Cycle Crime Unit:

http://www.lfgss.com/thread52193.html

Maz and Nicola came to the Hackney Cyclists meeting last night and presented their very impressive results to us. There's great news as their success so far means that their work will be given higher priority by Hackney police. Six other borough police forces have also been in touch about it--I really hope that they'll also assign officers to similar roles.

They've so far restored bikes worth over £12k to the owners and given a lot of untraceable bikes to local charities, including quite a few bikes in bad repair and missing parts that will be done up by one of the charities to be ridden again.

I was hugely impressed with their effort and dedication--what they're doing is exactly what we need in Hackney. It feels like a massive tidying-up job of something that has just got so untidy.

Just to repeat their e-mail address again:

hackneycyclecrimeunit@met.pnn.police.uk

(Perhaps you could put that in the OP, too, Mary Chain?)

Do get in touch with them if you have information that could be used to nab thieves in Hackney!

Its great to hear some positive feedback about cycle thefts!
As a resident of another borough I hope the other boroughs get on board

bump

BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Surly Steamroller stolen today from my hallway on Moulins road E9.
Surly frame, deep v yellow rear, deep v black front, risers, chris king headset in red, Miche crank. Nicked sometime between 12:30 and 14:30. Any help recovering would be well appreciated. PM me if anyone sees anything. Will be up the lane tomorrow.
zero7nine4zero 16ate19too

Thanks.... Also in stolen bikes thread

Thanks

Ollie

Howdy all.

Whilst doing the daily hunt on the usual sites for my stolen beauty I encountered this very suspect advert -

http://www.gumtree.com/london/87/71602287.html

Seems like it's $7200 new so would hate to see this missed by anyone on the looky for it.

Hey guys and girls! Got a question here.
Does this unit help if theft happened in Islington, not Hackney?

Thanks,
Pepe

It isn't directly responsible for it, but I imagine if they had to collaborate with colleagues in Islington, they would.

They did say that a number of other boroughs had been interested in setting up similar units, so perhaps Islington is among those. It would certainly make sense for Islington Police to follow suit.

Attack last week in Hackney Wick, posted originally on the Tower Hamlets Wheelers Forum:

I just wanted to give everyone a quick head's up. Last night I was ambushed at the bottom of the overpass that goes over the A12, level with Hackney Wick and
on the Hackney Wick side, by a couple of youths, both clearly with a propensity
for unprovoked violence. They took my bike and my bag which contained my keys,
wallet and phone, and felt that the best way to be persuasive was to punch me a
couple of times on the side of the face and stab me with some kind of sharp
implement, three times, in my left arm. It was one black man and one white man,
both in the early twenties, wearing dark clothes and hoodies.

The one positive was that it happened just round the corner from my flat and a
neighbour was kind enough to let me in so that I might call the emergency
services. The police were very quick, as were the paramedics, and I was taken to
Homerton hospital where I was seen virtually immediately - it was unusually
quiet - and I'm now patched up.

This is probably more detail than you need to know but I figure that it was
important to mention, quite possibly to confirm what some people already know or
suspect. I've lived in the area for nearly two years and have used the overpass
late at night countless times and until now I never thought it was a dangerous
place. It's an ideal spot for an ambush and these two youths had left their
bikes across the path so there was nothing that I could do to turn around or get
past them. The police suggested that they were opportunist but they seemed to
have a good idea of what they were doing.

What can be taken from this? I suppose, the fact that it might be worth
reassessing routes to anticipate these kinds of eventualities.
The exact location of the attack is here - http://bit.ly/ gs6oPF, at the meeting of the overpass with Chapman Road and directly opposite Wallis Road.

The OP is doing fine. He said today "It’s worth noting that it’s likely that the ‘men’ who attacked me are local; one of them tried (and failed) to use my credit card at a corner shop just round the corner on Danesdale Road, off Cassland Road, the following morning. This has created a solid lead as the detective I gave my detailed statement to on Thursday said that he was able to access the shop’s CCTV and take a screenshot which should help with the identification of a suspect. I will let you know if anything comes out of it".

Here's hoping they catch the cnuts.

more bloody theft reporting - my bike was nicked maybe 2 days ago now from my block of flats in Homerton high st (next to the ambulance station). On the advice of the 'what to do...' thread I emailed both the Met cycling task force and the address for the Hackney one, but no response - anyone know if I need to contact anyone else to report this? Not sure of the best procedure but wanted to speak to someone before the weekend in case it ends up London fields/brick lane... Cheers

more bloody theft reporting - my bike was nicked maybe 2 days ago now from my block of flats in Homerton high st (next to the ambulance station). On the advice of the 'what to do...' thread I emailed both the Met cycling task force and the address for the Hackney one, but no response - anyone know if I need to contact anyone else to report this? Not sure of the best procedure but wanted to speak to someone before the weekend in case it ends up London fields/brick lane... Cheers

you need to give them a call. it is no good emailing as it can take too long to pick them up.