Bike thefts Riders set up a summit with police chiefs over rising issue

BRISTOL'S motorbike owners have called a summit with police chiefs because of the rising numbers of bike thefts in and around Bristol. A campaign group set up to represent motorbike owners, many of whom have had their bikes stolen, say the tactics of the young bike-stealing gangs has changed, and they are now selling on the bikes they steal instead of just simply riding them around and dumping them.

- Tristan CORK

The summit will see police and crime commissioner Claire Moody meet the Bristol Bike Theft Awareness group (BBTA), along with several senior police officers.

The campaigners say they want to raise the issue with police, find out more about what the police are doing about the growing problem, and work together to combat the issue.

The summit - to which concerned bike owners from around Bristol are invited to come - is taking place at the BAWA venue in Filton on Monday evening, December 1, and has come about after around 30 bikers went en masse to one of the police commissioner's regular public consultation meetings, in Chipping Sodbury back in September.

A similar event back in 2018, after a year of a spike in the number of motorbikes being taken, saw the police set up Operation Buell, which saw officers targeting the bike-taking gangs, who at the time were flaunting their crimes on social media, with videos of their exploits.

Operation Buell saw a number of arrests, and bike theft fell by 70 per cent in just 12 months, in the year before the Covid pandemic.