Re:Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?
by dankohn1 on Monday June 19, 2017 @08:35PM
(#14591435)
>They could do a huge crackdown, but that's unsustainable and after the crackdown we'll be right back to the same theft rate.
Actually, there's evidence that a sustained crackdown can succeed in changing norms. I believe that the biking rate in Copenhagen is almost as high as Amsterdam but the theft rate is far lower. Norms matter. Here's an example:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/10/15/buenos_aires_...
Re:Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?
by ZenoArrow on Monday June 19, 2017 @08:20PM
(#14591378)
> "The problem is that the police have other stuff to do, and they might as well be pissing in the wind with the amount of bike theft here. They could do a huge crackdown, but that's unsustainable and after the crackdown we'll be right back to the same theft rate."
How about using CCTV at bicycle locking points? Combined with satellite imagery it should be a relatively non-resource intensive way to catch the thiefs. Of course, there's still the question of whether a surveillance-based solution is worse than the crime it's meant to address.
Re:Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?
by krageon on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @03:39AM
(#14592792)
Let's not turn Dutch cities into another example of the horrifying panopticon that UK cities have become.
Re:Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?
by funnyfacts365 on Tuesday June 20, 2017 @09:46AM
(#14594533)
Dude, they already are. Cameras everywhere
http://www.nhnieuws.nl/nieuws/207931/Fietsendief-in-Amsterda...
The problem is that the police have other stuff to do, and they might as well be pissing in the wind with the amount of bike theft here. They could do a huge crackdown, but that's unsustainable and after the crackdown we'll be right back to the same theft rate.
Interestingly there was a case this year (currently going through appeals) where a judge ruled that a man stealing a bicycle in a residential neighborhood should be found not guilty because the police had created the circumstances of the bike's theft:
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/01/decoy-bikes-sh...
It's unclear what that means for bicycle entrapment in general, but an article in Parool (again, in Dutch) suggested that this may have implications for the methods of the Amsterdam police depending on how it goes:
http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/4/AMSTERDAM/article/detail/42...