In response to a growing number of bike thefts in Lincoln, the police have created the Love it Lock It campaign.
To reduce these numbers, they have been handing out free vouchers to provide discounts for bike locks.
“It’s going really well and people are laughing at it all but there’s a serious side as well,” police enforcer David Freeman explained. “Invest in your bike! The campaign is: ‘if you love it, lock it!’”
In the past month, official police statistics says over fifty bikes have been stolen in Lincoln.
The police hope the vouchers will encourage more people to invest in newer, more effective bike locks. They say that the quality of locks can be the difference between a thief wanting to steal a bike and leaving it alone. At present, Lincolnshire is just outside the top ten of worst counties for bike thefts in England.
Locksmith Finlay James says the problem is that a lot of people own bikes but they don’t have the security. He sells the Gold Standard D-lock which he and the police believes is the most secure.