A man whose bike was stolen was aghast to be told police were closing his case even after he tracked down CCTV.
Christopher Barnard was annoyed at having to find CCTV himself after his e-bike was stolen from Station Street in Brighton.
But even after he tracked down the picture above from a local shop, which shows a man wheeling his bike along Trafalgar Street, he was told the investigation would be closed before it even began.
Mr Barnard said: “It’s pretty terrible that I had to play detective and do their job. It also took a week to be assigned a case officer, just to be told upload the evidence then we will close the case.”
The email he was sent said: “The image/footage will be uploaded to our database and the investigation closed. We will only contact you again if an identification is made and we are in a position to progress the matter further.”
A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said: “Around 11.40am on 29 September, police received a report of the theft of an e-bike from Station Street, Brighton. The bike was taken between 7.30am and 11.15am that day.
“Details of the bike and any other relevant information, including anything that may help identify the suspect, were requested from the victim.
“Footage of a man who may have information about the theft has since been provided to police, and efforts are ongoing to identify him.
“The matter has been filed pending that identification or any other new information coming to light.
“Anyone with information is asked to contact police online or by calling 101 quoting serial 522 of 27/09.”
Brighton Police previously closed another bike theft case despite being told there were clear photographs of the thief in action outside Yellowave last month.
The bike’s owner said he sent them to an email address supplied by a 101 operator – but the detective assigned his case told him these never reached them.
The case was closed two days after it was reported and only reopened after Brighton and Hove News contacted Sussex Police.
Typical of the two tier police and justice system that treats cyclists as second class citizens.
Chip on shoulder alert!
Really! This member of the public is an equal to every other member of the public; therefore, he should receive the same level of investigation and service that may reasonably be expected by any council taxpayer.
Yes, really. There are numerous accounts of police not investigating theft. There is nothing unique here. This poster has a well known chip.
I agree with you there. She’s very keen to make disingenuous comments all day everyday. I feel like a broken record calling it out all the time.
Hey Benjamin while I find it adorable that you think Delenda is a female name your really do need to learn a new word, might help with your broken record issue, in the mean time I’ll continue sharing my honest opinions.
Like that all time in Eastbourne I think they are _fucking useless
To be fair there are only a hundred or so police serving a community of hundreds of thousands. Brighton and Hove in total have 400000 people. Unfortunately, some crimes will be missed. You can’t even report thefts at the police station anymore! Go figure. Criminals are of course laughing.
Breath – noun
Breathe – verb
Police probably had a good laugh about it as well, simple fact is the police don’t know how to police.
He at the top of St James Street smoking cracks every day and night.
So that’s allright then. The thief will now happily carry on stealing as a way of life. What sort of message is that giving out to young people? Don’t worry about getting caught. That will never happen as no one will bother to check. And you can bet your life that if political correctness was involved, the police would be round immediately.
Perhaps if we had AI with CCTV linked to the National passport database so that if videos show a culprit they could easily be identified?
I’d be very worried owning an expensive eBike and leaving it in a public location – hopefully Christopher had insurance?
Pretty mandatory to have insurance for bikes these days. And there really needs a better way of monitoring them, GPS tags and the like. Bike theft is and easy crime at the moment, we need to find ways of making it harder.
GPS tags are only of use if you’re willing to resolve the situation yourself. The police aren’t 8ntersested at all
Thames Valley Police are the same. I had my bank card stolen, I tracked the offender down, got cctv evidence where the card was used. Because I evening got my money back from the bank, TVP said technically a crime hadn’t been committed. She basically stole from the bank and got away with it. In my case I even provided a name and address.
When I reported my car stolen at the police station I was asked “What do you want us to do about it ”
My reply met with don’t use that language in here! Suggested that I look on Facebook for it!
Someone popped up an hour later telling me where it was!
All you want the police to do, is their job!
Is that too much to ask?
Thieves are having a field day in Brighton as the police seem completely disinterested in finding the stuff we work hard for to save up and buy, just for it to be stolen by these low life’s!
It’s about time Sussex Police adopted a zero tolerance towards theft and burglaries instead of a zero interest in even trying to apprehend these villans and get them off our streets!!!
And yet if someone reported that they had been ‘offended’ by a post on twitter, plod would send in the SPG….