DC Police Bicycle stops

[creadinger]

I didn’t see another thread about this yet. Apologies if there is. It seems like people on the WABA forum should have some very interesting opinions if not compelled to act on this. NBC4 ran a story last night about how the DC police want to combat the high rate of bicycle thefts in Columbia Heights by stopping people, asking for proof of ownership of their bikes and if proof cannot be produced, impounding the bike until it is. Is that about right? Does anyone else know more about this?

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/DC-Columbia-Heights-Theft-Crackdown.html

Ok, I feel like this has some serious problems…

#1 So the DC police want to assume guilt until proven innocent now eh?

#2 What the heck constitutes proof of ownership? Are we supposed to carry around our receipts? Not all bike purchases come with a receipt. I think most municipalities have some sort of registration system for bikes right? Does that mean that unless you register with DC ahead of time there’s a chance that the police could basically steal your bike if you can’t provide proof of ownership? Do other people register their bikes? I never really considered it.

While stealing bikes is really a terrible thing to do, it sounds to me like to combat the problem, cops will just be going after cyclists in the hope of catching the thieves and not the thieves themselves. If someone steals a car, police don’t stop every single person who has that make and model of car. They try to track down that individual car if they can.

Topic

[Joe Chapline]

I saw the NBC story this morning. It seems like a crackpot idea, I find it hard to take seriously. My impression is that this is not something the police can just start doing, they would need a change in the law.

[jrenaut]

I think they would need to change the Constitution.

[Greenbelt]

Washcycle has a bit on this, and the Post too. Sounds like the NBC story was pretty misleading, if not just wrong.

[Author]

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