Exactly - and tracking down stolen bikes online is time consuming and thus expensive work that is better done by volonteers than by police. That money can be spent on other activities.<p>The problem is that it is probably rare that police is even willing to spend 30 minutes on traveling to a known location for a stolen bike. Seattle (maybe the US in general I don&#x27;t know) seems like a good place in this regard if he isn&#x27;t laughed at when trying to get a police officer to come talk to a bike thief.