Matters Memo

City of Boulder City Council Agenda Item Meeting Date: October 22, 2026 Agenda Title Bike Security and Theft Reduction City Council Priority Update

Staff Contact • • • •

Stephen Redfearn, Police Chief, Boulder Police Department Matt Fitzgerald, Police Sergeant, Boulder Police Department Blythe Bailey, Director, Transportation and Mobility Melanie Sloan, Principal Project Manager, Transportation and Mobility

Executive Summary The purpose of this study session is to provide a progress update and seek City Council feedback on the 2026 Bike Security and Theft Reduction City Council Priority Project, established at Council’s January 2026 retreat. The Bike Security and Theft Prevention Project applies a Problem-Oriented Policing approach under the city's Reimagine Policing Plan. Project work simultaneously targets prevention and enforcement to improve bicycle security in Boulder. The project is achieved through cross-departmental collaboration of Police, Transportation and Mobility, Facilities and Fleet, City Manager’s Office, and Communications and Engagement staff. Among other benefits, like the expectation that a reduction in bike theft will increase bike usage, the initiative targets two core goals: reducing year-overyear bike theft by 10% and achieving a 10% recovery rate for stolen bikes. Year to date in 2026, bicycle thefts have decreased approximately 14% compared to 2025, and the stolen bicycle recovery rate is about 13%. Additionally, reported bicycle theft at the University of Colorado Boulder appears to have decreased in 2026.

Prevention Initiatives •

Community Engagement & Bike Index Registration: Staff engaged the public at 15 community events and with 16 local bike shops to promote bike registration through Bike Index, a free to use global bicycle registry and stolen bike recovery platform. Registration complicates the reselling of stolen bikes through its database that is searchable by police departments, pawn shops, bike owners, and buyers, resulting in greater return of recovered bikes.

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Education & Target Hardening: Developed, in partnership with Community Cycles and hosted on the city’s Bike webpage, bilingual (English/Spanish) educational materials and instructional videos to teach proper locking techniques for bikes, including cargo and e-bikes.

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Property Owner Resources: Published a "how-to" guide for private property owners outlining standards, licensed contractors, site plan examples, and permitting requirements to encourage installation of secure bike parking, hosted on the city’s Bike webpage.

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Facility Maintenance: Formalized maintenance schedules and procedures for long-term bike parking at Downtown Boulder Station. Partnered with Downtown Boulder Partnership Ambassadors to monitor and tag abandoned bikes before removal by Facilities and Fleet’s District Maintenance Team.

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Digital Communications: Revamped the city’s bike webpage and targeted social media campaigns timed with high-risk seasonal periods to increase awareness and reduce the potential for bike theft to occur in the first place.

Data-Driven Enforcement •

Officer Education & Hotspot Analysis: Data analysis reveals distinct crime patterns: roughly two-thirds of thefts occur at residential properties (e.g., multifamily and student housing), and one-third occur at commercial destinations (e.g., 29th Street Mall); and thefts peak during warmer months. Officers receive training on thief behavioral indicators, spatial hotspots, seasonal trends and Bike Index workflows.

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Targeted Operations: Based on peer-city research and evaluation of tracking technologies, the Boulder Police Department deploy decoy bikes equipped with concealed GPS units in validated high-theft locations. Six bike theft operations were completed between May and September resulting in two arrests.

Questions for Council

1. Does Council have questions or feedback on the Bike Security and Theft Reduction project actions taken to date? 2. Does Council have questions or feedback on the remaining Bike Security and Theft Reduction project actions on bike parking signage, a bike parking map, and a long-term bike parking installation resource for property owners?

Alignment with City Plans and City Council History Sustainability, Equity and Resilience (SER) Framework and Citywide Strategic Plan Alignment SER Framework Goal Area •

Safe: o Prevent crime, alleviate harm, and improve quality of life for community members and visitors while minimizing disparate impacts on community members of color and considering the needs of different cultures, individuals, and community values. o Fosters a climate of safety for individuals in homes, businesses, neighborhoods, and public spaces. o Leverages partnerships and encourages shared community responsibility to keep Boulder safe. o Builds and maintains resilient infrastructure, landscapes and neighborhoods to mitigate existing and future hazards and risks.

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Accessible and Connected o Offers and encourages a variety of safe, comfortable, affordable, reliable, convenient, and clean mobility options.

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Responsibly Governed o Models stewardship, resilience, and sustainability of the city’s financial, human, information, and physical assets.

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Economically Vital o Invests in amenities, infrastructure, and services that contribute to an exceptional quality of life and attract employees and visitors.

Citywide Strategic Plan •

Strategy 1: Focus community safety efforts on reducing community harm at critical locations known for high incident rates or significant vulnerabilities.

o Priority Action A: Coordinate crime prevention and enforcement efforts in known high-crime areas utilizing the problem-solving policing model outlined in the Reimagining Policing Plan. •

Strategy 7: Invest in and maintain a transportation system with an array of multimodal choices to reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions. o Priority Action A: Implement programs and services that enhance equitable mobility.

Staff Notes The Bike Security and Theft Reduction project directly supports these strategies by identifying areas of elevated bike theft risk and targeting theft reduction strategies in those areas, educating the public about bike security, improving bike parking maintenance, and educating private property owners on how to install bike parking.

Alignment with Additional City Plans The primary plans supporting the Bike Security and Theft Reduction Project are the 2023 Reimagine Policing Plan with its central strategy of Problem-Solving Policing, which emphasizes reducing the likelihood of a crime from happening in the first place, and the 2019 Transportation Master Plan, with its goals to be safe, be equitable, be reliable, provide travel choices, and support clean air and our climate commitment.

City Council History •

January 2026: Council Retreat o January 12, 2026 Council Retreat, Day 1 o January 13, 2026 Council Retreat, Day 2

Analysis Background The City of Boulder has long been dedicated to creating a safe and secure world-class bicycle network. The Biking in Boulder section below details the city’s effort to build bicycle infrastructure and culture. The Reimagine Policing Plan section details the police department’s approach to bike security that centers community-based solutions and crime prevention. Biking in Boulder The City of Boulder is widely recognized as a national leader in bicycling. It is one of only five cities in the United States to receive the prestigious Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community status from the League of American Bicyclists.

Boulder has achieved this status as a result of years of planning and implementing safe, comfortable and connected bicycling facilities to serve all ages and abilities, like the over 300 miles of dedicated bikeways and more than 85 underpasses designed to reduce potential conflicts between people biking and driving (Figure 1), hosting education and encouragement campaigns, like Share the Path, sponsoring events, like Walk and Bike Month, and collaborating across city departments and across the community, like the B360 Circle Boulder by Bike annual event in partnership with Community Cycles, to create a community culture that welcomes and celebrates bicycling as a safe transportation option.

Figure 1: City of Boulder Bike Map In addition to the strong foundation of infrastructure and programs that support biking as a form of transportation, Boulder's codes and standards help ensure the presence of bicycling supportive infrastructure, that includes convenient and secure bike parking. Since 1998, the city has required new developments to provide short-term bike parking. The city has one approved bike rack for installation in the public right-of-way: the inverted U-rack. The U-rack is widely considered the gold standard for short-term bike

parking. The city also defines the details for the required number of racks and installation specifications. In 2014, the city updated its bike parking requirements with adoption of Ordinance Number 8005. Ordinance 8005 defined long-term bike parking requirements for new development and created detailed guidance on the number of short-term and long-term bike parking required by the type and size of land use development. In 2025, bike parking requirements were updated to consider cargo bikes and e-bike charging. In addition to private development requirements, private property owners, the Regional Transportation District (RTD), and various city departments also install bike parking. For example, coffee shops along Pearl Street have installed bike corrals in space previously allocated for vehicle parking (Figure 2), RTD has provided short-term and long-term bike parking at transit centers in Boulder like Table Mesa and Boulder Junction, Parks and Recreation has installed bike racks at parks and at recreation centers, and Open Space & Mountain Parks has installed bike racks at some trailheads. The city and various community partners have also provided temporary secure parking in the form of a "bike valet" at various events, such as the Boulder Farmers Market.

Figure 2: Bike corral on West Pearl at Trident Booksellers & Café Plentiful, safe, and secure bike parking, such as that provided by community partners, the business community, and through public resources, contributes to Boulder’s high percentage of people using bikes for transportation. The 2025 Boulder Valley Employee Survey for Transportation found 10% of Boulder Valley employees commute to work by

bike, 21% for those who live in Boulder.1 Far higher than average American cities, for comparison, only 1% of employees commute to work by bike in the City and County of Denver,2 and only 3.2% in Portland, OR.3 However, data shows that states and cities that have high rates of bicycling also have high rates of theft. 2023 FBI Crime Data identified Colorado as one of the top five states in the nation for bike theft, representing over one-third of all reported bike theft in the country.4 Colorado has 124.8 bike thefts per 100,000 residents. Oregon, which has communities and bicycling culture similar to Boulder and Colorado, has 129 bike thefts per 100,000 people. It is important to note that this data does not necessarily provide accurate comparisons of bicycle theft across the country. Across the country, bike theft is often underreported because many communities don't treat it as its own crime. Instead, bike theft gets filed under broader categories like burglary, theft, or robbery, and is rarely tracked separately. Bicycle theft remains a persistent issue in the City of Boulder, with 506 bicycles reported stolen to the Boulder Police Department in 2025. In addition, the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) Police Department reported in 2025 an additional 174 bike thefts to those reported to the city. This estimate is likely conservative: A 2023 survey, conducted by Bike Index, University of California Santa Barbara and SPAR Labs, found only 37% of victims told police their bike had been stolen.5 Of bicycles reported stolen in Boulder in 2025, 9% were reunited with their owners and 8% of cases resulted in a summons or arrest (Figure 3).6 For comparison, recovery rates across the United States are about 2% according to Bike Index. Boulder’s recovery rate is based on recorded bike recoveries and so it is conservative and may be an undercount. In Boulder, when bicycles are found in public places with no apparent suspect and no registered owner, they are often logged as found or abandoned property rather than as recovered stolen bikes. Owners can still claim found property by proving ownership, but that is a different route to reunification than recovering a registered stolen bicycle. Because it isn't clear whether such a bike was stolen or simply abandoned, it isn't counted as recovered, even though it may still end up back with its owner. As a result, the recovery rate is lower than the true share of lost or stolen bicycles that are eventually reunited with their owners.

1 https://bouldercolorado.gov/media/20864/download?inline 2 https://denvergov.org/files/assets/public/v/2/doti/documents/programsservices/denver-moves-

everyone/dme-2022-state-of-the-system-ada.pdf 3 https://www.portland.gov/scc/documents/transportation-mode-census-1990-2024/download 4 https://sundaysinsurance.com/guide/grand-theft-bicycle-the-top-5-states-bike-theft-stats-and-recoveryinsights 5 https://micromobility.io/news/where-americas-stolen-bikes-actually-go

Figure 3: Boulder Police Department Stolen Bikes Dashboard (2025) Though reports of bike theft in Boulder and on CU Boulder campuses have decreased significantly over the past five years (Figure 4), bicycle theft is a deterrent for potential riders and can negatively influence how much current bicyclists are willing to continue to bike.13

Figure 4: Boulder and CU Boulder Reported Bike Thefts, 2021 - 2026 13 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15568318.2024.2350946#abstract

Reimagine Policing Plan The Boulder Police Department 2023 Reimagine Policing Plan shifted the Boulder Police Department from a more traditional model of policing to a problem-solving approach that centers a holistic emphasis on community-based solutions and crime prevention. The Bike Security & Theft Prevention Project council priority is one of many ways the police department is applying the problem-oriented policing approach. To address the issue of bike security, the team used a conceptual crime model called the problem triangle (Figure 5). This is based on criminology research for the routine activity theory explanation of crime causation. It suggests that crime is likely to occur when there is a convergence in space and time of a suitable target (or victim), and a motivated offender in an unguarded place. Crime may be disrupted by impacting any side of the triangle. For example, by making a target less suitable (like less accessible), an offender less motivated (increasing the risk of apprehension), or a place more guarded or managed (public awareness of risk in area, security guards, active surveillance).

Figure 5: Problem Triangle The interior of the problem triangle defines three essential elements for crime events, described here for the project: 1. A suitable target: a bicycle (valuable, visible, accessible, and movable) 2. An unguarded place: bike rack or storage, a public park or on a sidewalk 3. A motivated offender: a suspect looking to sell it or travel somewhere else with the bike

Project Activities The Boulder Police Department collaborates with multiple city departments to holistically consider bike parking, bike security, and theft prevention to identify the actions most likely to succeed at reducing theft. Staff from Transportation and Mobility, Facilities and Fleet, City Manager’s Office, and Communications and Engagement all contribute to this work. The team also commits to evaluating the project’s actions to understand their effectiveness at meeting the project goals of year-over-year bike theft reduction by 10% and increasing stolen bike recovery to 10%. The project’s actions focus simultaneously on prevention and enforcement. Prevention The Bike Security and Theft Reduction project team undertakes multiple prevention tasks, including: 1. Partnering with the community to educate the public and potential future bike theft victims on how to keep their bike secure; 2. Educating the community on how to securely lock a bike; 3. Providing businesses and other private property owners with the information they need to install secure bike parking on or near their property; 4. Improving the condition of existing short-term bike parking; 5. Formalizing long-term bike parking maintenance at Downtown Boulder Station; and 6. Developing a comprehensive communications campaign to broadly and efficiently share the information with the community. Bike Registration Bike registration is a powerful theft prevention strategy. Bike registration reduces bike theft by acting as a visual deterrent when a registration decal is placed on the bike, complicating the resale of stolen property by providing an easy-to-use interface for a pawn shop or individual buyer to look up a used bike they are looking to buy, and helping police return recovered bicycles to their rightful owners by providing law enforcement an easily searchable database with owner contact information. Officers and staff share information on how to register a bike with the nation's largest bicycle registration service, non-profit Bike Index. Bike Index is a simple, free-to-use bike registry with over 1,800 partners globally and over 1.8 million registered bikes to date, and a reported track record of 10% of registered bikes reported stolen being recovered. The City of Boulder chose to use Bike Index because of its global reach, compatibility with police department systems, and its years of use in the city and on CU campuses through Bike BOLDER’s advocacy work.

Officers from the Boulder Police Department and staff from Transportation and Mobility participated in 15 community events and visited 16 bike shops to provide bike registration information, and at events, register community member’s bikes on the spot (Figure 6) or provided information to take away to register their bike once home.

Figure 6: CU Bike Fest Bike Index Registration Event

Additionally, project staff visited bike shops throughout the community to share bike registration cards and decals, U-lock bike lock information, bike security posters, and requested bike registration be integrated into the sale process (Figure 7). Bike shops welcomed the information and appreciated the city’s attention to reducing bike theft.

Figure 7: Bike Index Resources

Secure Bike Parking Bike theft is largely a crime of opportunity, with thieves benefitting from people who simply don’t lock their bike or don’t know how to securely park their bike. Even experienced riders can make mistakes, like locking only the top tube of the bike or just a wheel. Using a proper lock and secure bike parking techniques increases the effort a would-be thief would have to put in to steal a bike and so reduces the reward the bike offers to them. To help everyone understand how to make bike theft harder and less rewarding, city staff developed a one-page educational piece on proper bike locks and locking techniques. The material was also translated into Spanish (see Attachment A). The Police, Transportation and Mobility, and Communications and Engagement departments partnered with Community Cycles to develop bike locking videos to amplify these messages and to demonstrate secure bike and e-bike locking practices at a bike rack and at home. These videos will be shared with the community in the forthcoming months. Installing Bike Parking For property owners that want to contribute to reducing bike theft in Boulder, staff created a “how-to” install bike parking guide for private property owners. The brief guide provides information on sources for purchasing the approved bike rack per the City of Boulder Design and Construction Standards, links to the design standards for installing a rack, a list of city-licensed contractors to install bike racks, example site plans, and a link to the required permit application if the bike rack is installed in the public right-ofway (see attachments B and C). Bike Rack Maintenance Clean, well-functioning, and secure spaces for parking feel safe and inviting and encourage more usage, whether for short-term or long-term parking. Would-be bike parkers may perceive a bike parking location as insecure if the equipment and infrastructure are rusted, dark or uninviting. Regular cleaning can also address broken or abandoned bikes and keep secure racks open for other riders. Lastly, clean spaces encourage legitimate use and make it easier to spot suspicious activity, like thieves tampering with bike locks. Bike rack maintenance is the responsibility of the installer or those contracted to manage the bike parking. In downtown Boulder, Facilities and Fleet District Maintenance team, with support from Central Area General Improvement District (CAGID) and the University Hill General Improvement District (UHGID) invested in improving short-term bike parking by replacing aging, rusted and damaged inverted-U racks with new, more secure bike racks throughout the special districts.

Downtown Boulder Station Maintenance At the Downtown Boulder Station, the secure long-term bike parking Bike-n-Ride shelter is maintained by multiple agencies: the City of Boulder Transportation & Mobility and Facilities & Fleet departments and Boulder County, who manages the keycard access system to the Bike-n-Ride shelter. RTD is responsible for maintaining and cleaning areas outside of the Bike-N-Ride shelter, such as the plaza and its short-term bike parking racks and the larger Downtown Boulder Station area. The Bike Security and Theft Reduction project formalized a maintenance agreement, schedule and cleaning procedure for the Bike-n-Ride shelter to ensure routine and ongoing care is consistent and meets bicyclist expectations. Actions taken in the past year include increased cleaning, removing damaged racks, and adding mesh to the enclosure to reduce trash buildup. The CAGID expanded its partnership with the Downtown Boulder Partnership Ambassador Program to extend the Ambassador’s stolen and abandoned bike duties to the station’s long-term Bike-n-Ride shelter. Now, Ambassadors will provide a 30-day check on bikes tagged as potentially abandoned. After 30 days, the city will remove the bike from the Bike-n-Ride shelter. Communications The project also included strong efforts to better communicate the progress of the project and reinforce the importance of bicycle security The city’s Communications & Engagement department developed a new bike security webpage, revamped the city’s Bike webpage to be more interactive and informative for rider’s needs, and developed a social media campaign to ensure bike security and theft reduction messages were heard at the right times of year, by the most at risk for theft, and to celebrate successful recovery of stolen bikes by the police department (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Boulder Police Department Bike Security Facebook Reel Enforcement The goal of the Bike Security and Theft Prevention project is to find community-based solutions that address bike security and reduce bike theft. Law enforcement is integral in that mission, such as by interrupting repeat offending, coordinating with property managers to reduce crime risk, and reducing bicycle target suitability. Data on where, when and how bike theft occurs allows law enforcement to identify patterns. This information helps develop officer training and inform effective crime prevention. Discussions with peer cities’ bike theft reduction teams helps inform the city’s approach. Police department research into best practices for bike tracking helps inform bike theft reduction actions, including targeted bike theft operations. Officer Education Officer training on offender behavioral indicators, seasonal bike theft trends, spatial theft hotspots, and how to use bike registries collectively enables officers to better disrupt and deter bike theft in Boulder. Boulder Police Department staff routinely review data and find that bike theft in Boulder has consistent patterns over time. Bike thefts often concentrate along Canyon Blvd. and east of 28th St. (Figure 9). This aligns with areas where residents regularly use and store bicycles. About two-thirds of all bike thefts happen at residences, with most

around high-density housing like apartments, multi-family residences, and college housing, and one third happening at popular destinations, like the 29th Street Mall. Bike thefts increase in warmer months because bikes are more accessible when more individuals are riding and parking their bikes around town (Figure 10).

Figure 9. Bike Theft Hotspots in Boulder

Figure 10: Seasonal Trends for Bike Theft in Boulder In addition to identifying where and when bike theft peaks, officers are trained on several administrative bike security tasks. Officers are trained on how to incorporate Bike Index searches into bike theft and bike recovery reporting, are instructed to provide QR codes for Bike Index to community members while in the community, receive training on bike thief indicators, and are provided daily briefs of stolen bikes, with images, to assist in identification while on patrols. Best Practices Boulder Police Department officers speak often with peer communities to learn from their experiences reducing bike theft. Lessons learned from peer communities inform the bike theft prevention and enforcement work of this project. Officers also evaluated tracking devices available on the market today to understand how these tools could help reduce bike theft and increase recovery. There are many tracking technologies on the market, with only a few specific to bicycles. The most known tracker is the Apple AirTag. Each product, including the AirTag, has challenges, like whether it can provide real time tracking, the distance the technology is able to track, or how easily hidden the tracker can be. As a result of this research, officers chose not to recommend a specific tracking technology to the public and to continue to use the previously purchased tracking technology in its targeted bike theft operations.

Officers provide education at community events on how to use tracking devices, provide information on ways to hide trackers and share the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches to using trackers. Targeted Bike Theft Operations Targeted bike theft operations are a proactive law enforcement technique where police leave a locked, unattended, GPS-equipped bicycle in a high-theft area to track, locate and arrest bike thieves in real time. During an operation, officers place a decoy high-value bicycle in an area where bike thefts more frequently occur (Figure 11). These locations are selected using bike theft data reported to the police department. The bike has a hidden tracking device mounted to it, which alerts nearby officers when the bike is moved. Once stolen, nearby officers track the live signal and move in to intercept and arrest the suspect. Officers completed six targeted bike theft operations from May through October. Of those six operations, two arrests were made of prolific bike thieves. Apprehension of one of these prolific bike thieves can be seen in this video.

Figure 11: Decoy Bike and Targeted Bike Theft Operations Sign Remaining Work Though much has been done on the project, a few items need to be completed. Staff will advance these tasks over the remaining months in 2026: •

Signage o Downtown Boulder Station Long-Term Bike Parking ▪

Staff will mount signs within the station’s Bike-n-Ride shelter with information on how to securely park a bike, how to register a bike

with Bike Index, how to request Bike-n-Ride shelter maintenance, and how to report bike theft or damage. o Businesses and Property Owners ▪

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Staff will make available to businesses signs on how to securely park a bike, how to register a bike with Bike Index, and how to report bike theft or damage.

Long-Term Bike Parking Resources for Private Properties o Staff will develop an informational resource for private property owners who want to reduce bike theft by installing long term bike parking for their employees or residents. This resource will be shared directly with the community and through ongoing partnership with Community Cycles.

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Bike Parking Map o Staff will incorporate bike parking information into the City of Boulder Bike Map.

Future The City of Boulder is exploring how five downtown parking garages can evolve into mobility hubs — places where people can easily connect between different ways of getting around, whether they arrive by car, bus, bike, scooter, rideshare, or on foot. This grant-funded planning project will develop concept plans for transforming existing garages into welcoming, flexible transportation centers that improve access to downtown while supporting Boulder’s sustainability, mobility and economic vitality goals. Funding comes from the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) Innovative Mobility set-aside. A mobility hub is a convenient, existing parking location where multiple transportation options come together in one place, such as: •

Secure bicycle parking.

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E-bike charging.

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Shared micromobility parking and charging.

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Rideshare pick-up and drop-off areas.

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Carshare spaces.

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Electric vehicle charging spaces.

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Transit connections, like seating and real-time bus arrival information.

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Wayfinding.

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Public gathering spaces and placemaking features, such as public art.

The project is studying current parking and travel patterns, seeking community input, and incorporating research and best practices on mobility hubs into concept plans for five downtown garages currently managed by the city: •

1500 Pearl Street.

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1400 Walnut Street (Downtown Boulder Station).

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1100 Spruce Street.

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1000 Walnut Street.

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1126 Walnut Street (Randolph Center).

Each downtown garage serves different users and destinations, so the final concepts may look different at each location. The project will present final concept plans for each garage, which may include bicycle parking, to the community this winter. Alongside concepts for all five locations, the project will result in fact sheets for each location, cost estimates, funding and partnership opportunities, implementation and phasing recommendations, and a roadmap for future investment decisions and longterm operations. Implementation of the project’s plans will advance when funding becomes available. Evaluation Evaluating the project’s actions is critical to determine if they were effective at achieving its stated year-over-year goals to: •

Reduce bike theft in Boulder by 10%.

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Achieve a 10% recovery rate of bikes stolen in Boulder.

Though the project has been underway for only nine months this year, early data suggests the project actions will reduce bike theft in Boulder by the 10% goal. Figure 12 shows that, to date, bike thefts reported to the City of Boulder Police Department are down about 14% compared to the first nine months of 2025.

Figure 12: Year-Over-Year Bike Thefts in Boulder, 2025 - 2026 In the first nine months of 2026, and as of this writing, 365 bikes were stolen in Boulder and 49 were recovered, resulting in a to-date recovery rate of about 13% (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Bike Recovery Example

Recovery rates are anticipated to increase in the future as more people in Boulder register their bikes. Recovery data will continue to be monitored to test this assumption.

Anticipated Fiscal and Workplan Impacts Project Cost and Funding Sources This effort was undertaken using existing staff and departmental funding. New funding and additional staff would be needed to extend actions taken during this council priority year into future years. Fiscal Note Estimated Fiscal Impact Narrative Work in the Police Department was completed using existing staff and departmental funds. For future years, attending community engagement events may result in an increase to overtime by approximately $10K. If the department is to provide any type of theft-prevention giveaway items at events, such as bike locks, this would incur an additional cost of approximately $5,000 to $7,000. These amounts would require additional funding in the budget. Current Year Estimated Fiscal Impact Fund(s): General Fund Department(s): Police Program(s): All Programs

Item

FY 2026 Estimated Impact

FY 2026 Budget

Beginning Fund Balance

$43.51M

$0

$43.51M

Total Forecasted Revenue

$474K

$0

$474K

Total Estimated Expenses

$50.40M

$0

$50.40M

Ending Fund Balance(s) After Reserves

$1.87M

$0

$1.87M

FTE

280.5

0

280.5

FY 2026 Net Change

Three-Year Estimated Fiscal Impact

Item

FY 2026 Total Forecasted $0

$0

FY 2027 $0

FY 2028

Revenue Total Estimated Expenses

$0

$0

$0

Net Estimated Impact

$0

$0

$0

Equity Analysis Equity Analysis A City of Boulder Rapid Response Equity Assessment was completed for this project and is available upon request. National research shows that people with lower incomes and those identifying as Black or Asian experience higher rates of bicycle theft than higher-income or white counterparts.15 For low-income individuals, higher exposure to bike theft also carries a greater impact: a bicycle is frequently an essential, irreplaceable tool for getting to work or school or running daily errands. Further, many of these same communities have historically disproportionate policing impacts. The Bike Security and Theft Prevention Project addressed equity by using the problemsolving policing approach. First, by addressing upstream problems of bike theft with bike registration and proper bike locking techniques. Second, the project does not rely on law enforcement as its principal tool. Instead, education and collaboration with the public are the primary means used to reduce bike theft in the city. Third, when enforcement was used, it was guided by data on locations and times of year when bike thefts occur most frequently. By reducing suitable targets and focusing enforcement on hot spot locations for theft, enforcement becomes less necessary, fear-generating conditions like negative interactions with the police are reduced, and crime is lowered more equitably.

Climate, Resilience, and Sustainability Considerations The transportation sector constitutes 35% of Boulder’s emissions and so has a significant impact on the city’s climate goals. The 2025 Climate Action Plan has seven 15 https://findingspress.org/article/127974-bicycle-theft-in-the-us-magnitude-and-equity-impacts

action areas, one of which is Clean, Connected Mobility. Clean, Connected Mobility seeks to shift transportation choices to those with lower climate impacts, like walking, biking and taking transit. The City of Boulder has long planned for and invested in safe, comfortable and connected transportation choices, including walking, biking and taking transit. This project’s focus on increasing bike security and reducing bike theft will support this action area by removing the deterrent that bike theft is for people choosing to bike or bike to transit. According to recent data published in the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 45% of bicycle theft victims reduce or entirely stop their cycling activity, and 40% switch to unsustainable modes of transportation, like private cars, for post-theft trips.17

Community Engagement Officers and staff from Transportation and Mobility met with thousands of bicyclists at 15 community events around town and visited 16 bike dealers across Boulder (Figure 14). •

February: Winter Walk and Bike to Work Day

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March: Waffle & Ice Cream Social at Community Cycles

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April: Bike to School Day with BVSD

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May: Foothill Elementary Bike Bonanza

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June: Walk and Bike Month activities o B180 & B360 o Gunbarrel Bike Rally o Meadows Library Bike Rodeo o Walk and Bike to Work Day

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June through September: Bike Shop Visits 1. Trek 2. University Bicycles 3. Boulder Bicycle Works 4. Boulder Cycle Sport

17 International Journal of Sustainable Transportation

5. Community Cycles 6. Epic Mountain Gear 7. Excel Sports 8. Freedom Folding & Electric Bikes 9. Front Range Cargo Bikes 10. LTD Cycleworx 11. Mike’s Bikes 12. Pedego 13. REI 14. The Fix Bike Shop 15. Sports Garage 16. Vecchio’s Bicicletteria •

July: Bike Registration pop-up at Valmont Bike Park

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August: CU Bike Fest

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August & September: Five BVSD Back to School nights

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September: Three HOA Town Hall Meetings

Figure 14: Bike Security and Theft Prevention Community Engagement

Next Steps for City Council Staff will use council feedback from the October study session to refine the remaining tasks of the Bike Security and Theft Reduction Project. Beginning thereafter, progress on bike theft reduction will be tracked routinely and bike security and theft reduction actions will be reviewed and updated as conditions, resources and understanding of bike theft risks evolve. Additionally, officers, and especially new officers, will continue to receive education on bike security and theft reduction. It’s worth noting though that unlike other projects, this council priority project did not start before 2026, and it will not stop after the end of the year either. Boulder Police Department has been and will continue to remain committed to cross departmental collaboration to reduce bicycle theft in the city.

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Attachments A: How to Lock Your Bike Resource, English & Spanish language B: How to Install Bike Parking, English language C: How to Install Bike Parking, Spanish language