Vancouver-born database to combat bike theft expands across British Columbia

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A local solution to combating bike theft is expanding across British Columbia, thanks to funding from the provincial government.

Project 529, which began as a project of the Vancouver Police Department, will be expanded to allow police in all corners of British Columbia to quickly and easily search for a stolen bicycle and determine if it is registered to an owner.

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Project 529 is a free database and app that invites bike owners to register their bike details and contact information, so stolen bikes can be easily identified and reunited with the owners. The database also allows second-hand bike buyers to search for the bike they are considering to ensure it isn’t stolen, while those unlucky enough to be victims of bike theft can log in and mark their Wheels like stolen.

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The project was launched in 2015 with the support of the VPD Chief of Police. Adam Palmer and led by now-retired Const. Rob Brunt.

At the time, bicycle thefts in Vancouver were among the worst in the country and had increased 20 per cent annually.

According to Brunt, Vancouver police were receiving about nine reports of stolen bikes a day. If that trend had continued, Brunt estimates that more than 6,000 bicycles could have been stolen last year, instead of the 1,049 thefts recorded in 2023.

He said since 2015 the project has reunited about 1,250 stolen bicycles with their owners, worth about $1 million.

Since the project’s launch, nearly 200,000 bikes have been registered in British Columbia and more than 3.1 million worldwide. In the city of Vancouver alone, bicycle thefts have decreased about 70 per cent since the online database was created.

“What started as a Vancouver pilot project has now spread around the world, and we are proud to be known as the first police force to have a significant impact on bicycle theft,” Palmer said.

The project has also attracted the attention of police forces overseas, with New Zealand recently pledging to provide the country’s national police force with similar on-site access to the database.

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The database was designed by J Allard, a former Microsoft executive whose bicycle had been stolen.

“We have changed the way police fight bicycle theft around the world, providing a universal registration system that is accessible, searchable and shared by police forces,” Allard said. “As a result, bicycles are returned to their owners, sometimes across international borders.

“BC taking this pioneering initiative is not only great news for cyclists across the province, it’s another step in getting the rest of Canada (and the world) on board to further close the ranks around bicycle thieves.

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