6 ms·

This is an awesome thing for him to be doing, but I don't understand why he needed to step up and do it. The thieves post in a public place basically admitting

This is an awesome thing for him to be doing, but I don't understand why he needed to step up and do it. The thieves post in a public place basically admitting that they stole the item and are more than willing to meet up... Why did it take a third party to start doing it?

ck2 10y ago
Because the police simply do not care about bike thefts so the criminals know they can get away with it.
- rwmj 10y ago
  I think the question of the OP is why don't the police do anything? It is their job after all.
  - sgift 10y ago
    Not enough police to do something against every crime, so they have to decide which ones they handle and bike crimes often are not the ones which are taken. There's a simple solution, but it involves taxpayer money (which is usually frowned upon here): Hire more police.
  - fiatmoney 10y ago
    It's their job to do what they're told. If the city government decided Bike Crime was a top priority, cops got promotions based on how many bikes they recaptured, etc. then presumably they would be more active. Conversely, when the government decides it doesn't want a law enforced it's very easy to make that clear. Laws are an excuse to be able to target kinds of activity the government wants to target at the time; it's more "laws enabling cops" than "cops enforcing laws". That's why drug laws are so handy; all you have to do is say "I smelled marijuana" and you get to throw in jail whichever problem population you're targeting at the moment.
    - archgoon 10y ago
      Which is why the "Batman solution" as described in the article may actually be the best way of dealing with this problem. Individual citizens who care about the problem can investigate the issue, and once they've gotten the meetup setup, the police can be called in to complete the arrest. This way, the community are the ones initiating police action, rather than the police themselves (which, as you point out, bad incentives can then result in an unhealthy relationship between the community and police).
      - alkonaut 10y ago
        Exactly - and tracking down stolen bikes online is time consuming and thus expensive work that is better done by volonteers than by police. That money can be spent on other activities. The problem is that it is probably rare that police is even willing to spend 30 minutes on traveling to a known location for a stolen bike. Seattle (maybe the US in general I don't know) seems like a good place in this regard if he isn't laughed at when trying to get a police officer to come talk to a bike thief.
        BobCat 10y ago
        Nonsense. Putting one bike thief in prison can save the public hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. He steals a $1k bike every other day = $182k/yr So even if a cop only tracked down 1 thief per month, he's paying his own salary back many times.
    - scurvy 10y ago
      So what exactly is the priority of San Francisco, it's DA, and police department? I ask because I haven't been able to figure that out in 20 years of living here. From what I can tell, the police are good people, but the DA's are generally useless and are only interested in pushing an alternative social agenda as opposed to enforcing the laws passed by previous generations.
      - fiatmoney 10y ago
- chris_wot 10y ago
  Flagrantly flouting the law and thumbing their nose at the police eventually causes the police to come into disrepute if they consistently show they don't care about theft. The police force can only really enforce the law because society gives them permission to do so. The instant that you have mobs of Bike Batmans the police will act because now you have increased vigilantism - and people taking the law into their own hands. This sort of thing can escalate very quickly. If bike batman works well, then why not murderer batman, or rapist batman? And then there is the escalation of enforcement. What if bike batman decided to really get serious and use a gun to get the bike back?
  - woah 10y ago
    If bike batman shot someone, he would be guilty of murder.
    - clem 10y ago
      It's been established as canon that Bike Batman does not carry a gun.
    - jessaustin 10y ago
      That simply isn't true. These people are stealing bikes!
    - chris_wot 10y ago
      What if it was on self defence? The point is that the police should be handling this!
- archgoon 10y ago
  Not strictly true; the article details that 'The Batman' actually works in conjunction with the police. It seems more like the case that he's taken on the overhead of investigating and coordinating meetups. Once that's done, the police seem happy to do the actual arrest. However, this sounds like there are some very bad incentives in the PD, where performing arrests is prioritized over investigation. However, I think characterizing the issue as "simply do not care about bike thefts" may not be the most accurate description of the problem.
  - lxmorj 10y ago
    This guy doesn't have a secret weapon the police don't - unless you count 'willingness to put in the time'.
  - a_imho 10y ago
    Our local police or other stake holders actually tried and succeeded in disbanding the groups chasing bike thieves with bait bikes. You can watch the episodes on yt.
beachstartup 10y ago
have you ever tried to get the police to actually do anything for you?
chillitom 10y ago
Good Priceonomics article on the economics of bike theft. http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/30393216796/what-happens-to-stolen-bicycles http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/30393216796/what-happens-t... TLDR; with bikes theives can hit a sweet spot in the trade-off between risk and reward.
lawnchair_larry 10y ago
Police in most cities don't give a damn about property crime. I heard that some (non-wealthy) Seattle neighborhoods hire private security because the police never show up, and thieves operate with impunity.

ck2 10y ago

Because the police simply do not care about bike thefts so the criminals know they can get away with it.

rwmj 10y ago
I think the question of the OP is why don't the police do anything? It is their job after all.
- sgift 10y ago
  Not enough police to do something against every crime, so they have to decide which ones they handle and bike crimes often are not the ones which are taken. There's a simple solution, but it involves taxpayer money (which is usually frowned upon here): Hire more police.
- fiatmoney 10y ago
  It's their job to do what they're told. If the city government decided Bike Crime was a top priority, cops got promotions based on how many bikes they recaptured, etc. then presumably they would be more active. Conversely, when the government decides it doesn't want a law enforced it's very easy to make that clear. Laws are an excuse to be able to target kinds of activity the government wants to target at the time; it's more "laws enabling cops" than "cops enforcing laws". That's why drug laws are so handy; all you have to do is say "I smelled marijuana" and you get to throw in jail whichever problem population you're targeting at the moment.
  - archgoon 10y ago
    Which is why the "Batman solution" as described in the article may actually be the best way of dealing with this problem. Individual citizens who care about the problem can investigate the issue, and once they've gotten the meetup setup, the police can be called in to complete the arrest. This way, the community are the ones initiating police action, rather than the police themselves (which, as you point out, bad incentives can then result in an unhealthy relationship between the community and police).
    - alkonaut 10y ago
      Exactly - and tracking down stolen bikes online is time consuming and thus expensive work that is better done by volonteers than by police. That money can be spent on other activities. The problem is that it is probably rare that police is even willing to spend 30 minutes on traveling to a known location for a stolen bike. Seattle (maybe the US in general I don't know) seems like a good place in this regard if he isn't laughed at when trying to get a police officer to come talk to a bike thief.
      - BobCat 10y ago
        Nonsense. Putting one bike thief in prison can save the public hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. He steals a $1k bike every other day = $182k/yr So even if a cop only tracked down 1 thief per month, he's paying his own salary back many times.
  - scurvy 10y ago
    So what exactly is the priority of San Francisco, it's DA, and police department? I ask because I haven't been able to figure that out in 20 years of living here. From what I can tell, the police are good people, but the DA's are generally useless and are only interested in pushing an alternative social agenda as opposed to enforcing the laws passed by previous generations.
    - fiatmoney 10y ago
chris_wot 10y ago
Flagrantly flouting the law and thumbing their nose at the police eventually causes the police to come into disrepute if they consistently show they don't care about theft. The police force can only really enforce the law because society gives them permission to do so. The instant that you have mobs of Bike Batmans the police will act because now you have increased vigilantism - and people taking the law into their own hands. This sort of thing can escalate very quickly. If bike batman works well, then why not murderer batman, or rapist batman? And then there is the escalation of enforcement. What if bike batman decided to really get serious and use a gun to get the bike back?
- woah 10y ago
  If bike batman shot someone, he would be guilty of murder.
  - clem 10y ago
    It's been established as canon that Bike Batman does not carry a gun.
  - jessaustin 10y ago
    That simply isn't true. These people are stealing bikes!
  - chris_wot 10y ago
    What if it was on self defence? The point is that the police should be handling this!
archgoon 10y ago
Not strictly true; the article details that 'The Batman' actually works in conjunction with the police. It seems more like the case that he's taken on the overhead of investigating and coordinating meetups. Once that's done, the police seem happy to do the actual arrest. However, this sounds like there are some very bad incentives in the PD, where performing arrests is prioritized over investigation. However, I think characterizing the issue as "simply do not care about bike thefts" may not be the most accurate description of the problem.
- lxmorj 10y ago
  This guy doesn't have a secret weapon the police don't - unless you count 'willingness to put in the time'.
- a_imho 10y ago
  Our local police or other stake holders actually tried and succeeded in disbanding the groups chasing bike thieves with bait bikes. You can watch the episodes on yt.

beachstartup 10y ago

have you ever tried to get the police to actually do anything for you?

chillitom 10y ago

Good Priceonomics article on the economics of bike theft. http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/30393216796/what-happens-to-stolen-bicycles http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/30393216796/what-happens-t... TLDR; with bikes theives can hit a sweet spot in the trade-off between risk and reward.

lawnchair_larry 10y ago

Police in most cities don't give a damn about property crime. I heard that some (non-wealthy) Seattle neighborhoods hire private security because the police never show up, and thieves operate with impunity.