Many local police forces (towns, cities, universities, etc.) in the US have this type of register using the serial number but I doubt that it is centrally accessible. Instead, they usually provide a sticker with the police department name/logo that one applies on the frame to identify where it's from. This is certainly not an ideal solution; I would much rather have something like vehicle licensing but free, managed by states or the federal government, which seems more in line with what you mentioned.

Edit: Just found this supposedly national registry: https://www.nationalbikeregistry.com/

Nobody uses the NBR .., they're basically just selling stickers. When you dig into how many LE agencies use them, it's like ... six. Maybe even less.

BikeIndex.org, though - which is mentioned in the article because that's what the batman is referencing - is totally open and has over 220+ national partners and over 70k bikes on file.

BikeIndex.org does seem to be especially prevalent on the west coast and definitely more widely used than the NBR, thanks for pointing that out.

But it appears that only law enforcement have access to the database. It would be much more effective if people were able use it to do a search to see if a bike was reported stolen or not. It may be because it has been around for a long time and was never updated to have an internet interface.

They say they are the "only true national database" (whatever that means), but I'm sure other (non-true) ones popped up because of this limitation.

What's stopping people from filing the serial numbers off?

Because potential buyers would instantly know that they are buying stolen goods. People who would be fine with that might just as easily steal a bike for themselves, making the definitely-stolen-bike market a really weak one.

>People who would be fine with that might just as easily steal a bike for themselves

This isn't true. I know several people that don't care much about buying things with a shady history but would never steal anything themselves. The logic was something like, "Would you still accept a $20 bill if it had been stolen at some point since it was printed?"

That wouldn't hold up in court :)

If they could prove you knew or suspected it might have been stolen, you can get charged (depending on your state's laws).

I, for one, would not buy a bike with that filed off, because of the implication (and the fact that buying goods one could be expected to know is stolen is illegal). So that's that

It's inferior compared to welding a new bead over the serial, grinding it flat and engraving a new serial?

I assume it's hard to sell it as your own if the buyer isn't shady/cares about buying stolen goods?