The British Transport Police have updated their Crime Screening Policy to resume investigations of more bikes stolen outside train stations after a backlash.
The force found itself in hot water in October when the BTP’s Crime Screening Policy explained that bike thefts would not be investigated if the value of the bike was below £200 or “If the cycle has been left at the location for over 2 hours”.
The story rapidly gathered momentum, with the force accused of “effectively decriminalising bike theft”. The BTP subsequently made a statement criticising media reporting of the screening policy, but subsequently confirmed that officers were advised to only examine around two hours of CCTV footage around each reported theft, insisting “it is not proportionate to review longer periods as it keeps officers from being available to respond to emergencies, visibly patrolling railway stations and trains, investigating crimes with identified lines of enquiry or which cause the most harm to victims – such as violent or sexual offences.”
But in a statement released yesterday, Assistant Chief Constable Ian Drummond-Smith said that “rail passengers whose bikes are stolen rightly expect a thorough police investigation to trace offenders and reunite them with their property, and we are committed to bringing more bike thieves to justice in 2026 than ever before.
“Officers will investigate more reports and explore all viable lines of enquiry if a bike is identifiable on CCTV, or if there is a witness to the crime.
“We continue to work closely with the railway industry to pinpoint hotspot locations and improve CCTV footage to further our investigations and bring offenders before the courts.”
The policy change, which applies to England, Scotland and Wales, came into effect on the 5th of January, the first working day after a series of Freedom of Information requests by campaign group Crush Crime were published. They found that only 0.5 percent of the more than 4000 bikes reported stolen from a railway station led to a suspect being charged, a significant percentage decrease compared to previous years. The BTP say they have since charged “a man” with cycle theft since reviewing their policy.
> “Theft is now legal in Britain”: Only 0.5% of station bike thefts lead to charges
At the time, British Cycling said that decriminalising bike theft “will only serve to deter more people from choosing cycling, whilst preventing those already riding a bike from continuing to do so.” Cycling UK also said that the policy meant “it starts to feel like people should ‘See it. Say it. Sort it yourself.'”
UPDATE: When approached for comment, the British Transport Police told road.cc “There is now no reference to the cost of the bike or the amount of time a bike was left unattended in the Policy,” adding that “a crime will be screened in if one or more of the below applies:
- There is a witness to the offence
- The bike is identifiable on CCTV
- The bike was stored in an on-train cycle rack
11 thoughts on “Police confirm U-turn on controversial policy not to investigate stolen bikes left outside train stations for more than two hours”
It’s good to see this policy
It’s good to see this policy changes ; no doubt brought about by the social-media backlash. It does remain to be seen how well the policy is implemented ; there’s a world of difference between what a policy says should be done and what actually is . Long gone are the days when the general public believe the utterances of public officials ; it does occur to me that the public have never believed public officials , never in the history of all hitherto existing society.
We’ve won a small battle here
We’ve won a small battle here. Now let’s carry on fighting the war.
“more than ever before” eh?
“more than ever before” eh?
Low bar, but progress I guess. A win’s a win.
So does that mean they’ll
So does that mean they’ll have to find a different reason not to investigate the thefts?
So does that mean they’ll
So does that mean they’ll have to find a different reason not to investigate the thefts?
Yes- or pretend to ‘investigate’ while doing nothing at all
Whew! Thank god we are going
Whew! Thank god we are going back to the system where they just do nothing about these unofficially.
Over 15 years ago I had my
Over 15 years ago my saddle was stolen when I left my bike locked at a station.
It was directly under the CCTV and having reported it was told they had caught the theft on the camera.
Still waiting for the case to be resolved.
Yes, my face is blue from holding my breath.
mitsky wrote:
Hmm… clearly I need to adjust my screen settings then.
Have had a couple of bikes go
Have had a couple of bikes go from station and mixed response from transport police. Last year, I suggested perhaps that be a bit more proactive and prepaid use ‘trap bikes’ that they can follow if stolen at worst stations. Do it a couple of times and would be interesting to see if theft rate falls
I wonder why BTP can’t use AI
I wonder why BTP can’t use AI to screen CCTV evidence …….
If they’re like some of the
If they’re like some of the other police forces I wouldn’t wonder that they couldn’t use A screen…
Possibly they just aren’t getting into it because in some cases the bike won’t be on CCTV so they couldn’t do binary search and maybe “here it’s a blurry image of someone leaving with a bike like yours” isn’t considered helpful evidence. Perhaps there are too many theft cases and time vs reward (in terms of effort to deliver a case the CPS will bring to court) is too low.