MAG released a national police force ranking system for motorcycle theft in August. Two forces failed to respond to FOI requests within the time restraints. Leicestershire Police have responded recently and now the only remaining response has been received from Humberside Police and analysed.
Humberside Police’s response explained that a change in reporting procedures meant that data pre-June 6th 2017 could not be provided. Whilst this makes it impossible to quantify the improvement from 2017 to 2018, it is clear that there was an improvement.
In the almost 7 months that were covered for 2017, one more motorcycle theft was reported than for the whole of 2018. The figures for 2018 reveal that with 22,895 registered bikes and 99 reported thefts, the theft rate is 4 stolen for every 1000 registered bikes. This gives Humberside Police a healthy ranking of 7 out of 38.
Commenting on the results, MAG’s Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement, Colin Brown, said “We are aware that Humberside Police have been working on the bike theft issue for a while now. Their Operation Yellowfin is clearly showing results. We hope that they continue with the good work and are happy that this is a clear demonstration that an impact on bike theft is not a pipe dream, but something that can be a reality in any area given a robust response by the police.
We would like to re-state to the 6 forces that were unable to supply figures for their areas, the importance of this basic data. I hope that they will all take a long hard look at bike theft in their jurisdictions. Sweeping the issue under the carpet is neither sensible, nor beneficial, to the motorcycle owners that are entitled to the protection of their local police. As Humberside have demonstrated, a change can be made to recording techniques; let’s see that change happen in those 6 remaining force areas.”
Contact MAG at 01926 844 064 or central-office@mag-uk.org