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Officers return 12 stolen bikes to their owners and gather valuable intelligence on bike thieves.
Operation Helium was a joint operation between the MPS Safer Transport Command (STC) funded by TfL, Tower Hamlets local police and Tower Hamlets Market Services, and was set up to tackle cycle theft and the sale of stolen bikes in Brick Lane Market. It began in late September 2010, and involved officers conducting intelligence-lead patrols after Brick Lane was identified as a hotspot for cycle-related offences.
Londoners have said that fear of theft can stop them from cycling all together. As part of the Mayor's Cycling Revolution, which is taking place across the capital, the Mayor and TfL have worked closely with the police to drive down theft and make cycling safer and more secure. The Mayor also launched the MPS Cycle Task Force in June this year with 30 officers who specialise in cycle-related crime.
Every Sunday for the past four months officers gathered intelligence on suspected cycle theft-related cases, conducted high-visibility patrols and advised cyclists on issues such as security, safety and how to protectively mark their bikes.
Officers returned 12 bikes to their owners as they had been reported stolen to the police, with a total of 12 arrests made as a direct result of the operation. The Cycle Task Force worked with officers from the Whitechapel Town Centre team, who have also been working with Tower Hamlets Market Inspectors to tackle illegal street trading.
The Cycle Task Force officers were supported by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets CCTV Control Centre throughout the operation that enabled them to track suspects through the busy market area and lead officers to any suspected thefts of cycles.
During one of the Sunday operations, officers arrested 41-year -old Leroy Spencer, who stole the wheels from a bike parked and locked to a rack on Bethnal Green Road. The owner returned to the bike to find them missing and approached officers, who were patrolling in Sclater Street as part of Operation Helium. Details of the incident were circulated via the police radio and an officer who was working in the Tower Hamlets CCTV Control Centre spotted Spencer holding bicycle wheels in Brick Lane market. Officers located Spencer and the victim’s wheels nearby and arrested him. He appeared at court charged with theft and was jailed for two weeks after pleading guilty.
Since its launch in June this year, the MPS Cycle Task Force has already cycle security marked over 10,000 bikes and made over 100 arrests.