The Chatham-Kent police department is working on a bicycle registry that would be in place next year.
Chief Gary Conn says it's an enhancement to the citizen online reporting system available on the Chatham-Kent police website to make it easier to reunite bikes with their owners when they get stolen. He says theft was the most reported crime on their website over the last year with 71 incidents and 75% of those were stolen bicycles.
"They are the lower priority calls but they free up our officers so they can be more active on general patrol," Conn says. "They don't have to come into the service and generate their reports and that sort of stuff."
The citizen online reporting system has received 241 low priority reports since September of 2016.
Conn says hundreds of bikes are stolen every year but officers often don't know who owns them because the thefts are frequently unreported.
"If it does go stolen or if we happen to recover it, we'll be able to go into our records management system and be able to identify who the property owner is and get that property back to them that much sooner," Conn says.
Conn says people can register their bike's serial number, make, model and colour. CKPS is also adding a traffic complaints section to the online reporting system where the public can give police details about re-occurring issues. Police will then determine if enforcement is required.