It's a positive trend concerning bicycle thefts on the campus of the University of Guelph.
According to its annual report brought to the Guelph Police Services Board Thursday, U of G's campus police said 35 bicycle thefts were reported between May 2022 and April 2023.
There were 62 bike thefts in the 12 months prior to that.
“I like to credit that on wizardry on my part, and guiding the officers on patrol and everything,” David Lee, director of the campus police, told the board.
“We’ve slightly increased our bicycle patrol hours, but not by that much. We’ve increased targeted foot patrol to the bicycle racks, but not by that much.”
He said he is not sure why there was such a drastic drop, but added police are going to take a closer look at the bikes that were stolen, and whether there was something particular about the bikes that were targeted.
“A preliminary check doesn’t show anything unique about them,” Lee said. “They weren't super high end bikes, they just seemed to be bikes of opportunity.
“The guess is, of course, it's a poor locking system.”
Lee added there is a lock exchange program on campus, and while there has been a slight uptake increase year-over-year, he said it’s possible all factors he mentioned before contributed to the drop.
“In all honesty, I’m scratching my head,” he said. “I really want to find out what we did right, so that we can keep doing it.”
