By: Maverick Marcellana and Cynthia Mazariegos
The Long Beach State University Police Department (UPD) attempted to fight against campus bike theft through programs like the U-Locks and in 2023, resorted to decoy bikes.
The UPD planted decoys around campus to lure in thieves and track them down to find where they keep stolen bikes.
“Having your bike stolen may impact students, faculty and staff differently. If it is your only mode of transportation, it can be very stressful and a financial burden,” UPD Police Chief John Brockie said in an email.
CSULB Crime Analyst Johnny Leyva said a total of 57 bikes were stolen from January to November.
“When we look at our crime statistics, one of the very high crimes that occur the most are stolen bikes,” Brockie said.
The UPD now offers free U-locks whenever a student registers their bike to the department, but it is on a first-come, first-served basis.
The UPD can track the decoy bikes with GPS tracking built into the bikes. However, Brockie did not want to go into detail to prevent thieves from knowing any key information about the decoys.
The UPD places the decoy bikes where higher concentrations of bike theft happen.
“We made an arrest 50% of the time the decoy bikes were deployed,” Brockie said in an email.
Brockie said individuals who have been caught have not been affiliated with CSULB in any way. Officers may know perpetrators occasionally because they are local unhoused people.
According to UPD Lieutenant Carol Almaguer, the decoy bikes they rented belong to the Seal Beach Police Department. They were used as a test run, but the UPD no longer has the funds to continue to use decoys.
“The existing value of one bait bike is upwards of $3,200. We borrowed two bikes and Seal Beach wanted their equipment back so they were returned,” Almaguer said in an email.
Some rentals have also come from the Long Beach Police Department. Brockie said the UPD has borrowed from different agencies so the decoys won’t look the same.
First-year engineering major, Eron Ray, oftentimes rides his bike on campus and likes to keep it with him at all times. He claims to never leave it anywhere for more than four hours at most.
Ray depends on his bike to stay on his budget since gas prices have been on the rise.
“If somebody were to steal it, it’d be terrible,” Ray said.
Ray says that it’s nice that the UPD is making any effort it can to reduce bike thefts on campus. He said there should be cameras on the bike locks, that way there’d be a good amount of criminals to catch.
First-year 26-year-old accounting major Kent Berg also rides his bike around campus about two to three times a week at most. He believes the decoy bikes wouldn’t be as effective if the crime wasn’t recurring, but is a, “cool idea” nonetheless.
“I don’t think anyone comes back to keep stealing at the same place,” Berg said. “I guess it’s kind of effective. I feel like the cops would have a better idea of whether that is effective or not.”
Berg added that spreading awareness about bike theft would help out in preventing these crimes, should it ever happen.
At the moment, Brockie and the UPD have yet to come up with any other initiatives to combat the bike theft problem but are always open to new alternatives.