A Cambridge Inspector has said he “desperately” wants to do more about cycle crime in the city, but he has to "balance" the resources the police have in the "most effective" way. The Inspector's comments came in response to claims police weren’t doing enough to confront the issue of cycle crime in the city.
Inspector Ed McNeill said the criticism the police have received is not deserved, as the public do not necessarily see everything they are doing to tackle the problem - as it's only one job in a large remit. He characterised cycle crime as an issue police deal with on “multiple fronts”, including awareness days, bike marking, education and recovering stolen bikes with proactive patrols.
He added: “Education is so important in getting people to understand what they can do to prevent cycle crime. The more money you can spend on a lock, for instance, the less likely that bike will be stolen by an offender as they’ll look for “an easier target”.
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In 2021, data from the ONS showed that Cambridge was the UK hotspot for bicycle thefts - the city recorded more than double the number of stolen bikes than the country’s second-worst affected city, Oxford. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the rate of reported thefts per 1,000 people last year in Cambridge was 18.4, more than any other UK town or city.
He added: “If you look at our figures you’ll see that we were just shy of 3000 offences in 2019 - that number has come down year on year to the lowest level it has been at for 15 years. We’re looking at around 950 offences for this year, so we’re looking at around a 60 per cent reduction and that’s on the back of loads of other things going on”.
Responding to claims police have not acted when they’ve received intelligence on bike thieves, he said: “There’s a difference between presenting evidence and prosecution. The evidence needs to suggest culpability beyond a reasonable doubt in order to prosecute".
'The evidence needs to suggest culpability beyond a reasonable doubt in order to prosecute'
He added: “There’s a dedicated officer for cycle crime. We have to balance cycle crime amongst all the other demands that are going on so I can’t go around investigating every single crime.
"We have to focus the resources we have on the biggest issues. I think the reality is there will be individual cases where we aren’t going to be able to stop bikes being stolen or end up prosecuting people."
'If you go back to the Peelian Principles; the police are the public and the public are the police'
Asked about what was being done to tackle the high number of thefts from cycle point on Station Road, and the infrastructure needed to deter thieves he said “everything was on the table”. He added: “It would need to be led by a consultation with Greater Anglia - that’ll be a phased implementation”.
Inspector McNeill said groups such as Stolen Bikes in Cambridge were "excellent", and it is "encouraging" the public is being proactive in dealing with the issue. He said: “If you go back to the Peelian Principles; the police are the public and the public are the police - we’ve all got a responsibility to try and do something.
“I have a responsibility for this and I’m trying to do what I can to solve crime, I think we’re having a positive impact but I want to go further”. If you’d like to find out more about what the police are doing to solve cycle crime you can do so here.
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December 27, 2022 at 01:00PM
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Cambridge Inspector 'desperate' to solve cycle crime in the city - Cambridgeshire Live
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