Dr. Gridlock: Trying to Report Bike Theft Gets Reader Nowhere Fast

Dear Dr. Gridlock:

My bike was stolen from one of the College Park Metro station bike racks. It had been secured with a cable lock, which was cut and left on the ground where my bike had once been.

The next day, I called the Prince George's police to report the crime. I was told that this Metro station was not their jurisdiction. I was then quickly transferred to the Metro Transit Police, who just as quickly informed me that I would not be able to report the crime over the phone as they did not have a dedicated unit to accept crime reports over the phone.

The person on the phone then went on to say that I would have to come down to a Metro station and then an officer would be dispatched to the station to take my report. I argued that this was a waste of my time and Metro's, as I was not near a Metro stop, nor would it be convenient for me to go to one. I was then asked to hold, but no one ever came back to assist me.

I called back later that day, and I insisted that I was not able to come to a Metro station. I was transferred to someone who took down my name and number and said that an officer would call me later. I did receive a call later in the day, and I was then able to complete the crime report.

I'm sure that many people would not go to the same trouble of making multiple calls and waiting on hold for extended periods to report a simple crime such as a bike theft. By Metro making it very hard to file a crime report, they make the statistics for crime on Metro look much rosier than reality.

Daniel Ney, College Park

Ney wasn't being singled out on this. Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn told me that he prefers to have police talk in person to crime victims. "It's better to do face-to-face," he said. Although it would probably be more convenient for both the police and the crime victim to take some reports over the phone, police will take the time to go out to meet the traveler.

The department is short-staffed considering its mission, but a more flexible reporting program might help gather information for certain less-serious types of crimes. Some departments routinely take such reports over the phone or online now.

Clearly, the experience discouraged Ney. After the theft, he bought a new bike. About a week later, he said, the front tire was stolen while the bike was in the rack at the College Park Station. "I did not even attempt to report the second crime after the hassle I got the first time," he said in an e-mail.