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@Tumbleweed
If anyone has doughnuts, I'm down for a stakeout.
I've had a lot of time to think about this and I have understood that there is probably an unofficial policy for law enforcement in most big cities to ignore cycle theft to some extent as the victims are usually in the student, or lower classes that may not vote or not taken seriously in general. And also the LCD's general idea that a bike is worth £50 tops does not make the local bi-pods give a poop cause they think they are all daralictic crap heaps in their eyes (London does not have good Bike locking facilites). The average joe still thinks that bikes are for kids; take a wheel off a bike and it is instantly junk and marked for disposal. If someone takes a part of your bike, the vultures will pick it clean in days.
Bottom line is that they would prefer druggies steal bikes for a hit. That way the students get to buy their stolen bikes back in the spring (the big shuffle) and everybody is happy or unhappy. But who cares because the crooks did not need to move on to more distruptive crimes like burglary or muggings and bag snatching.
It's a similar concept to when the political types want to clean up an area (i.e. open a few Starbuuks), they just turn up the heat and move the riff-raff and alley cats slightly cross town to a new an area where they can steal bikes and sniff glue without a challenge. You cant stop or legislate crime away, so you just steer it.
I don't agree with vigilates but, I don't like bike thiefs for obvious reasons. I Dislike the vultures even more. Sadly, I don't think the CCTV cameras are going to save a bike unless the theif is really sloppy but one thing we got going is that riding fixed is not so easy for the unsuspecting. A friend had his fixed gear bike stolen and dumped a block away...