The Bike Index is excited to announce a fantastic new partner in our fight against bike theft - LeadsOnline!

LeadsOnline provides the nation's largest online investigation system used by law enforcement investigators. Thousands of pawn and secondhand businesses across all 50 states report their daily transactions via LeadsOnline. Law enforcement investigators then use LeadsOnline to search for stolen property and suspects, including bikes and bike thieves. Nearly 4,000 law enforcement agencies contract with LeadsOnline. Through the corporation of reporting business and law enforcement, investigators are able to efficiently recover stolen items sold across jurisdictional lines. Even if the law enforcement agency is not on the national LeadsOnline network, investigators may contact LeadsOnline for no cost assistance regarding a bike theft.

"We're elated to work with LeadsOnline," said Bryan Hance of Bike Index. "We know that bike thieves try to 'game the system' by pawning stolen bikes immediately after a theft – often in a different city or state - and LeadsOnline has an outstanding solution to that exact problem."

In addition to filing a police report, registering a stolen bike with Bike Index helps law enforcement look for it in more places than is otherwise possible, and keep searching until the case is resolved. “Law enforcement investigators will go to great lengths to recover stolen bikes, and LeadsOnline is regarded as a helpful resource for them. In one case, the Santa Clara County California Sheriff’s Office used LeadsOnline to locate and recover more than $50,000 in inventory, including carbon fiber bikes that had been stolen from a business in Cupertino. In another case, a detective found a stolen bike via LeadsOnline, and then used his personal vehicle and vacation time to recover the bike in another state and return it to its owner,” said Ashley Sacrider, LeadsOnline Director of Operations.

Thanks to Bike Index's open API and LeadsOnline’s national investigations system, LeadsOnline checks its bicycle transactions against the Bike Index stolen bike reports continually and reports any alerts to law enforcement when a stolen bike is found. Law enforcement officers can then use Bike Index’s owner-provided photographs and bicycle configuration details to further assist with identification.

"LeadsOnline has very impressive technology, and Bike Index has great data on stolen bikes, so this is a productive mix," said Hance. “By giving LeadsOnline our data, we know investigators will have the best information they need to efficiently work these cases – and that more stolen bikes will come home."

About Bike Index:

The Bike Index is the largest, most successful bicycle registration system. With over 97,000 bikes on file, 3,400 stolen bike recoveries, and 320+ partners in retail, law enforcement, bike shops and schools, the Bike Index chases bike thieves and recovers bikes on a grand scale. See our bike recovery stories at https://bikeindex.org/news for more. Inquiries? contact@bikeindex.org

About LeadsOnline:

LeadsOnline is the nation’s largest online investigative system used by more than 3,800 law enforcement agencies to recover stolen property and solve crimes. Each day, millions of items are added to the LeadsOnline database by businesses including second-hand stores, scrap metal recyclers, pawnshops, and Internet drop-off stores across all 50 states. Those records are instantly available to law enforcement agencies, meaning crimes can be solved in seconds, not months. Each year, LeadsOnline is credited with recovering millions of dollars in stolen goods and solving thousands of crimes that are often associated with bigger crimes, such as homicide, identity theft, and arson. Visit leadsonline.com to see examples of cases solved by investigators using LeadsOnline. Inquiries? support@leadsonline.com