Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Police & Crime Commissioner defends under-fire force accused of "astonishing victim blaming" by cycling campaign group, after officers raised concerns that installing more bike parking is "not ideal" and could cause "bigger increase in crime"

Thames Valley Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber insisted the stance "isn't victim blaming" and argued the concern was simply stating that "if the plans go ahead they should be designed with crime prevention in mind"...

A row between Oxfordshire cyclists and the Thames Valley Police & Crime Commissioner erupted after it emerged a Neighbourhoods Policing Team had raised concerns with new on-street cycle parking spaces in Oxford as "without adequate crime prevention" it could cause the police "further burden" and "any more encouragement to have more bikes in the city will see an even bigger increase in bike crime".

Thames Valley Police comments RE cycle parking plan

Those written concerns were presented to the council regarding the proposed scheme, Oxfordshire Cycling Network sharing a screenshot of the comments on Twitter/X and asking Thames Valley Police & Crime Commissioner Matthew Barber, "Do you have any grip on this?"

"Astonishing victim blaming by Thames Valley Police [TVP] here," the campaign group wrote. "Concerns about cycle parking because they might encourage people to bring more cycles into the city, encouraging more crime. What next?

"Do TVP want parking spaces removed to reduce car crime? Will TVP object to a shopping centre because it will bring more shoplifting? That new housing development will have burglaries, or burglars, so they should object. But they only object to bike stands."

Barber disagreed and refuted the idea that the concerns expressed were victim blaming. 

"Extraordinary that anyone would object to the police calling for crime prevention measures to STOP people becoming victims of crime!" he responded. "This isn't victim blaming. This literally says that if the plans go ahead they should be designed with crime prevention in mind.

"Surely everyone would want new infrastructure to come with crime prevention at its heart. Just as the police will make comments to prevent crime on new housing estates and other major projects. We all want less crime and to keep people's bikes safe."

The Police & Crime Commissioner was particularly highlighting the mention of "without adequate crime prevention" and the second paragraph of the Neighbourhood Policing Team's concerns, which stated: "Should these measures proceed I would like to see the right crime prevention and security for bikes was included and the on-street parking bays were placed strategically under under observation from a CCTV camera it would be more suitable, but still not ideal."

However, Barber's response did not end the discussion, another reply telling the Police & Crime Commissioner: "Fine if it stopped at recommending the sensible security measures. Instead it says, even with these, it is 'not ideal' to encourage more people to cycle as more bikes cause more opportunist crime. Awful take from a policing team, but even more worrying that you can't see why."

Another suggested the final paragraph of the concerns is "clearly discouraging any more bikes".

Labour and Co-operative county councillor Charlie Hicks also replied to Barber: "This is a totally ridiculous and illogical position. What else would Barber suggest in the name of crime prevention? Don't buy houses to prevent burglary? Don't use phones to prevent thefts? This is classic two-tier policing from a police force that doesn't care about road safety."

This is Oxfordshire has reported that Andrew Gant from Oxfordshire County Council has approved the new racks on Brasenose Lane, Ship Street, Queens Lane, Leopold Street, Observatory Street and South Parade, commenting: "You might feel that crime prevention is a matter for TVP but there you go." He also pointed out that CCTV was a matter for the owners of nearby buildings, the council saying it has already agreed to pay for the cycle parking "despite significant constraints on local funding".

Public faith in the police's attitude towards bike theft remains low, 2024 beginning with an analysis of Home Office figures by the Liberal Democrats suggesting that at that point more than 365,000 reported bike thefts had gone unsolved since 2019.

The party also warned that bike theft has been effectively "decriminalised", a YouGov survey from 2022 also finding that three quarters of Brits don't expect the police to bother investigating bike thefts. In September 2023, it was revealed that bike thefts at train stations had increased by 39 per cent in 2022 compared with 2021.

> Police failed to catch a bike thief in 87% of affected neighbourhoods in past three years

Cycling UK's Director of External Affairs Sarah McMonagle commented: "While we acknowledge the limitations on police resources, with more than half of stolen bikes being resold online there's clearly huge scope for improved targeting of internet marketplaces to identify and prosecute serial offenders and organised criminals."

There also remain concerns from Oxfordshire cyclists with the way TVP deals with other incidents, notably dangerous driving and video footage reports made to the force by cyclists.

Just last week we reported that Barber's office admitted there are "very valid concerns" regarding how the force has dealt with footage of alleged dangerous driving reported by cyclists.

The office of the Police & Crime Commissioner said: "The force is recruiting to fill a 'shortage in resources' and staff that has meant 'Notice of Intended Prosecutions are not able to be sent to the offending driver within the legal timeframe of 14 days."

A "dismayed" road.cc reader from Oxfordshire told us that TVP requires a "real change in culture" around road safety, the police force having failed to take action on multiple clips of "hugely dangerous" driving that the cyclist caught on camera during his rides.

Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.

Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.

Add new comment

15 comments

Avatar
Velo-drone | 2 weeks ago
2 likes

Interesting stance from Oxford police given that police don't actually investigate the vast majority of bike thefts anyway. An increase in bike thefts would only result in a greater burden for them if they actually did anything about it.

Interested to know if they have opposed new car parking facilities on the same basis ..

Avatar
GMBasix | 3 weeks ago
2 likes

Sadly, the principles of active travel are lost on some  aspects of policing. Take, for example, the Secure By Design approach that abhors permeability. "more permeability; more crime" (Secure by Design Homes Guide 2024, p18 after Taylor, 2002). That position is not without its criticism (at random, Armitage, 2014, p12).

The problem is that it leads to more cul-de-sacs, less modal filtering, and more fortress mentality. Better security is achieved by more social interaction, more fluidity, more community. And a Neighbourhood Watch patrol armed with bats.

We have to look at other ways of dealing with the antisocial elements of our society without telling everybody that we have to restrict mobility of the many to limit the wayward few.

Avatar
mdavidford | 3 weeks ago
1 like

Quote:

Andrew Gant from Oxfordshire County Council has approved the new racks [...] commenting: "You might feel that crime prevention is a matter for TVP but there you go." He also pointed out that CCTV was a matter for the owners of nearby buildings

And there, in long and short, is the biggest problem with the broken planning system - no joined up thinking, just finger-pointing and buck-passing.

Avatar
Ysgubor | 3 weeks ago
1 like

What do PCC do? No need to reply! 

Avatar
Bungle_52 replied to Ysgubor | 3 weeks ago
1 like

Ours has just supended the chief constable apparently.

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/gloucestershi...

Avatar
essexian replied to Ysgubor | 3 weeks ago
3 likes

Can't be arsed to have the piss taken out of me

Avatar
Jetmans Dad replied to essexian | 3 weeks ago
1 like

essexian wrote:

... could actually do something about rouge operators.

Nothing to add to the discussion, just always enjoy that particular typo. It is an all-time classic. 

Avatar
quiff replied to Jetmans Dad | 3 weeks ago
0 likes

Jetmans Dad wrote:

essexian wrote:

... could actually do something about rouge operators.

Nothing to add to the discussion, just always enjoy that particular typo. It is an all-time classic. 

Roooo-xanne....

Avatar
essexian replied to Jetmans Dad | 3 weeks ago
1 like

You try being dyslexic. You might find it fun,

Avatar
mattw | 3 weeks ago
2 likes

I'm delighted that Notts does not have the most ludicrous Police and Crime Commissioner in the country any more.

But Oxfordshire has my sympathy.

Does Matthew Barber have form for shit-shovelling, he used to be a Conservative Party Local Councillor?

Avatar
NickSprink | 3 weeks ago
12 likes

Not surprised, where I live is covered by TVP, main road nearby the council proposed reducing the speed limit from 40 to 30. TVP advised against it as basically they didnt want to enforce it.  Fortunately it has now gone ahead after lots of campaigning by locals for the lower limit.

Avatar
eburtthebike | 3 weeks ago
10 likes

The office of the Police & Crime Commissioner said: "The force is recruiting to fill a 'shortage in resources' and staff that has meant 'Notice of Intended Prosecutions are not able to be sent to the offending driver within the legal timeframe of 14 days."

We all know that the police, like all public bodies, have been underfunded and overworked* for over a decade so I can understand why sending NIPs might not be the first priority.  What I would question is why NIPs have to be sent out in 14 days?  A month doesn't seem to me to be an absurd length of time, and it would give the people reviewing the evidence more time to identify the most serious cases and issue the NIP.

 

*Except for policing protests about climate change etc.  Always plenty of police for them.

Avatar
henryb | 3 weeks ago
5 likes

Presumably by the same logic, the government's house-building plan will increase the number of burglaries?

Avatar
Rendel Harris | 3 weeks ago
19 likes

Rather reminiscent of one of my favourite ever Private Eye cartoons, which had two muggers standing over the supine body of their victim, looking through his wallet, with one saying to the other, "There's bound to be crime when idiots insist on carrying this sort of money around." 

Apart from the obvious idiocies pointed out above in that the ideal for crime prevention would be for nobody to own anything at all, it's rather a cheek for police to say that more bike parking and more bicycles would add to their burden because of increased bicycle theft; they don't do anything about the bicycle theft that happens now so why would an increase make any difference? 0×10 produces the same result as 0x100...

Avatar
Pub bike replied to Rendel Harris | 3 weeks ago
4 likes

Alongside the Police's victim blaming leaflet campaigns and signage e.g. "Thieves operate in this area lock your doors etc" they should start giving out birth control advice and products so that fewer new criminals are born.

Latest Comments