An anti-bike theft database that first piloted in Vancouver nine years ago is now open and searchable for all police forces throughout the province.
Project 529 is an online bicycle registration service that allows owners to list their bikes, determine if a bike they’re considering purchasing is stolen and, ideally, find their bike if it gets taken. By giving police access to the database, it also gives law enforcement the power to confirm if a bike is stolen and reunite it with its owner.
The project team says it has close to 200,000 bikes registered in its database in B.C. and more than 3.1 million worldwide.
Since partnering with the Vancouver Police Service in 2015, the project says bike thefts have declined in the city from about nine reported a day to three. In an October 2018 news release from Project 529, a then-consultant with the World Bank said Vancouver is seen as a world leader in lowering bike crime.
At the time, the team said Vancouver bikes had been found as far away as Portland and San Francisco, thanks to the database.
The expansion to all B.C. police agencies, announced on Tuesday (April 30), is supported by $225,000 in funding from the Ministry of Transportation. While free to access for the public, the project team charges police agencies in order to cover the cost of maintaining the database.
“Project 529 is building on the great work done by local law enforcement to create a community-driven solution for bike theft,” Minister Rob Fleming said in a statement.
More information on the database can be found at project529.com.
READ ALSO: Shipping container full of prototype e-bikes swiped from B.C. warehouse lot