Boston, already known for its tweeting police department, has decided to use social media to get the word out about stolen bikes in the city. The Stolen Bikes Boston Community Alert initiative is a simple albeit wise way to let you report your stolen bike.
The site notifies the police, bike shops, and local security, plus posts to the Twitter and Facebook accounts that have been setup within a matter of minutes. Citizens at-large can then follow the accounts and report sightings of the stolen bikes.
Leveraging Twitter and Facebook, on top of traditional channels, is a great to way to get the community involved and active in city crime-fighting efforts. The immediate nature of status updates, and their mobile distribution, means that more and more people can have instant access to the bike theft reports, increasing the likelihood that more lost bikes will be recovered. We're impressed with the city's efforts, and we hope to see more stolen bikes recovered and more cities adopt similar tactics.