Open letter: Why won’t BTP investigate stolen bikes?

Chief Constable Lucy D’Orsi
Cc. Deputy Chief Constable Alistair Sutherland

20 November 2025

Dear Chief Constable

On 10 October, I wrote to you on behalf of Cycling UK, the national cycling charity, urging you to review British Transport Police’s (BTP) crime screening policy, indicating that we would be delighted to meet with you or other senior colleagues to discuss BTP’s approach to policing bike theft.

I have received an email from BTP’s External Affairs Lead, dated 14 November. However, that appears to be a standard response to all enquiries, as MPs who have contacted BTP about this policy in response to concerns raised by our members have also received an identical reply.

Unfortunately, the standard email response does not answer the question I asked about whether BTP would review this policy, which I have attached to the cover email accompanying this letter, and the policy does not appear to have been withdrawn.

The email I received states that BTP knows “that most people who leave their bicycle at a station will do so for more than two hours”, and that BTP “considers all viable lines of enquiry when an offence is reported”.

Paragraph 1.8 of your policy is however explicit: if the cycle has been left at the location for over two hours or the value of the cycle is below £200, BTP will not investigate unless there are any special factors to justify allocation. If that is no longer BTP’s policy then the policy should be formally withdrawn.

BTP’s stance in correspondence is that reporting on this issue has been incorrect, that bike theft at train stations has not been de-criminalised, that BTP knows most people will leave bikes at stations for more than two hours, and that BTP “considers all viable lines of enquiry when an offence is reported”.

However, that position is inconsistent with your formal policy. People considering whether to cycle to the train station need to know whether the policy has been withdrawn or not. I would be extremely grateful if you could respond formally and answer that specific question.

The email I received also indicated that BTP officers may not have the time to review long periods of CCTV in full. The point we have made is that if someone locks up their bike at a station at 8.00am, and it’s not there when they return eight hours later, then presumably BTP can check any CCTV camera footage covering that location to see if the bike was still there at noon.

If it wasn’t, the footage can be checked to see if it was there at 10.00am. Repeating that process would very quickly pinpoint a time frame when the bike disappeared. Therefore, it is simply not the case that officers would have to wade through hours of camera footage if a bike is left for more than two hours.

We see no reason why the same process undertaken when viewing CCTV footage to investigate other offences cannot be applied to bike theft.

As indicated in my earlier letter, we would be happy to meet you or other senior officers to discuss this. I look forward to hearing from you in due course, hopefully with an answer to the specific question on the withdrawal of this policy.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah McMonagle
Director of External Affairs
Cycling UK