Bike Theft Task Force spreads awareness at Sunday Parkways

The booth at the entrance to Woodlawn Park was buzzing with activity all day.
(Photos by J. Maus/BikePortland)

If we’re going to take a bite out of bike theft in Portland we need the whole community to step up: Police, bike shops, city bureaus, and citizens like you and me.

It’s all about education and collaboration — two things that were on display this past Sunday as the Portland Police Bureau’s Bike Theft Task Force made their presence felt at Sunday Parkways. Four uniformed officers joined with staff from the city’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement and citizen volunteers to register bikes and educate people about secure locking techniques.

It was the second go-round of the Task Force’s hugely popular U-lock? U-rock! program. Thanks to a collaboration with Project 529 (a Task Force member) and lock-maker ABUS, the Task Force was able to give away another 50 u-locks.

Sunday Parkways started at 11:00 am and the line for the locks started forming at around 10:00. To get one, people had to show up with a bike, get it registered on Project 529, demonstrate proper u-locking technique, and give us a cable lock as part of the exchange. We had three teams registering bikes and PPB officers on hand to answer questions, hand out information, and interact with the community.

Officer Dave Bryant spreading knowledge to our youth.

Love our new shirts.

ONI Crime Prevention Coordinator Stefanie Kouremetis was a registration machine.

Gotta’ find that serial number.

Officer Oliphant spent the day talking to the throngs of riders that came past the booth.

Officer Oliphant and one of Portland’s newest riders.

Volunteer Pete Frey and his snazzy new BTTF t-shirt!

Officer Benjamin Labasan helping out.

Officer Dave Sanders demonstrating how to use a u-lock.

Registration teams in action!

Another happy customer.

This woman just got a new bike and wanted to make sure she locked it up correctly.

Preventing bike theft, one u-lock at a time.

Just part of our team: (L to R) Stefanie Kouremetis, crime prevention coordinator, Office of Neighborhood Involvement; PPB Officer Benjamin Labasan; Me (Jonathan Maus); Peter Frey, citizen volunteer; and Sydney Wilson, ONI Crime Prevention program intern.
(Photo: PPB Officer Dave Sanders)

After handing in their old cable locks, many people got to grab a pair of bolt-cutters and slice through them.

We registered well over 100 bikes and gave away all the u-locks we brought in less than an hour. We also handed out lots of our new Bike Theft Task Force swag and told people about the important work we’re doing.

If you missed out on a u-lock this time, come find us at the Southeast Sunday Parkways on August 21st. If you’d like to be a Bike Theft Task Force volunteer, please get in touch.

I’m so grateful to be able to work with our Portland Police and this great team we’ve put together! We plan to continue to build the Task Force so we can have an even greater impact on preventing bike theft. For more info, see the official website.

— Jonathan Maus, (503) 706-8804 – jonathan@bikeportland.org

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