JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – The Jacksonville Beach Police Department will be registering residents’ bikes using a new technology that aims to help prevent bicycle theft.
The bicycle registration event will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Police Department at 101 Penman Road South. Due to the weather, police said that the event will be in their covered garaged bay. Those attending are asked to enter the north parking lot off of Shetter Avenue. From there, people can bring their bicycles into the bay for registration.
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Bicycle DNA is a high-tech registration program that will link a bicycle to its owner and help Jacksonville Beach police and law enforcement agencies around the country identify ownership.
“There are over 10,000 police departments that are currently enrolled in the program, so if a bicycle stored here in Jacksonville Beach and ends up in Miami, Florida, or Seattle, Washington, it can still be identified who the owner of that property is,” explained Shawn Andreas, president of Protech DNA.
Bicycle DNA stickers will be provided to residents for registration. The special registration stickers have several microscopic dots embedded into the adhesive. Even if a sticker is removed, law enforcement can still authenticate ownership.
“When our residents or, you know, people coming out to the beach or visiting, you know, they’re getting their bicycle stolen. I mean, that’s a big thing, so we want to make that stop so that, you know, people can feel like they can ride the streets and do what they need to do with their bicycles,” said JBPD Detective Jason Lamont.
So far this year, Jacksonville Beach has seen $60,000 in bike theft.