Thanks to Sgt. Matthew Friedman for supplying the following information:
You’ve just purchased a bicycle. What should you do?
First step is to go to SF Safe (Safe Bikes) www.safebikes.org. SAFE Bikes is San Francisco’s voluntary bicycle program out of Safe (Safety Awareness for everyone) in partnership with the San Francisco Police department. SAFE Bikes was developed by the Park Community Police Advisory Board (CPAB) and SAFE in cooperation with the SFPD to educate bicycle owners about effective locking techniques, deter bicycle theft and recover stolen bicycles. On www.safebikes.org you can register your bicycle or see if the bicycle you have had been registered. SF Safe (Safe Bikes) has made their database available to run serial numbers (over 10,000 bikes registered from San Francisco). http://sfsafe.force.com/seriallookup – the link can also be accessed by going to www.safebikes.org and clicking the upper right hand corner of the page under (Recovered a Bike).
This photo is the recommended way bicyclists should consider when locking their bicycle.
This locking strategy is called the Sheldon Brown locking method. To read about why this method is the best way to deploy a locking strategy click here: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html.
If your bicycle is missing.
www.bikeindex.org continues to be a great resource to try and reunite owners with their stolen/recovered bikes. This is an open source registry which makes it very easy to run serial numbers. Over 20 thousand stolen bikes have been registered on the Bike Index and this number continues to grow.
While working with the Bike Index we’ve managed to come up with checklist/resources to help victims aid in the recovery of their property and prevent future theft. The checklist can be accessed by clicking this link: https://medium.com/@stolenbikessfo/what-to-do-after-you-bike-has-been-stolen-in-the-bay-area-e08e6b6f005b
Read “How Not to Buy a Stolen Bike on Craigslist” resource sheet the Bike Index put together with SFPD input. It’s a way to help educate the community about what to look for to prevent buying a stolen bike on Craigslist and other online market places. (dont_buy_stolen.pdf)