Photo by Ryan Holloway.

Bike theft from Metro stations was up 24 percent in 2013, according to a Metro Transit Police security report.

Last year, 411 bikes were stolen from the system, while that number was 330 in 2012. “Bicycle thefts are subject to seasonal patterns, being more prevalent in warmer months,” the report says. “These types of thefts garnered attention in the regional media by the end of summer last year. Our partners in the District of Columbia and in Northern Virginia suburbs reported similar increases in their jurisdictions. The MTPD highlighted on enforcement efforts by using casual clothes officers to provide surveillance of bicycle racks and targeted uniformed patrols guided by crime statistics. We distributed literature and bicycle locks at several outreach events. In addition, we partnered with other Authority offices to improve bike rack security by installing more racks at identified stations, removing abandoned bicycles, and constructing a secured bicycle cage at College Park Metro Station.”

Also up? The number of electronic device snatches, from 491 in 2012 to 643 in 2013. Of the 643, 90 percent of the cases involved cell phones. “The perpetrators are predominantly young men acting alone. About two thirds of the victims are women,” the report says. “The Metro system is a target-rich environment for cell phone snatches, and we would be comparable to other large cities with cell phones accounting for half of all thefts according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In the District of Columbia, there were 2,486 cell phones snatched in 2013, or over three times the number of cell phone snatches in the Metro System.”