The ASU Police Department’s increased focus on bike thefts has resulted in a rise in arrests over the past month, Cmdr. Jim Hardina said.

“We have had a lot of success with bike theft arrests this semester,” he said.

ASU Police records show 16 reported bike thefts in the last week.

The department has made four arrests over a month’s span, Hardina said.

The use of a bait bike on the Downtown campus resulted in the most recent arrest on Thursday, Hardina said.

In another arrest, a Chandler man was suspected of bike theft Oct. 10 on the Tempe campus.

Jason Beck, 26, was arrested near the Student Services Building and booked into the Fourth Avenue Jail on counts of trafficking stolen property, trespassing and theft of a bicycle, according to a police report.

Hardina said it can be difficult to catch bike thieves, but dedicating more officers to bike theft enforcement has helped land arrests.

“The new system is working,” Hardina said. “We are putting a lot [of emphasis] on finding people stealing bikes.”

ASU Police has three fundamental ways of catching someone stealing a bike, Hardina said.

The most effective way is when someone reports a suspicious-looking person over the phone at the time of the incident, he said.

Other methods include police surveillance, with officers either in uniform or undercover, and the use of bait bikes on campus.

Hardina said it is easy to see a difference between normal and abnormal behavior at a bike rack.

“When someone comes in on a bike, goes past the bike rack, then goes past the bike rack again, then comes back to the bike rack, that’s suspicious behavior,” he said. “That’s what we look for.”

Bike thieves typically ride a cheap or run-down bike that they park next to the bike they are going to steal, he said.

One of the problems with the first two methods is that thieves often claim the bikes belong to them, but with bait bikes, police know when they are lying, Hardina said.

The recent arrest on the Downtown campus was the result of a quick response by the officers, Hardina said.

“Within two hours [of the incident], we arrested somebody for stealing a bike,” he said.

Assistant Chief of Police Jay Spradling said he was amazed by how quickly the response was to the bait bike in Phoenix, and that sometimes bait bikes can sit out for days or weeks.

“In some respects that was luck, but also good police work,” he said.

While Spradling said he’s pleased with the number of suspected bike thieves who have been arrested over the past month, he said that people need to be smart when locking up their bikes.

“The most effective way [to combat bike theft] is to prevent it,” Spradling said.

He said students should lock their bikes at designated bike racks around campus and make sure the area is well lit.

Marketing junior Nick Chan had his bike stolen while he was in class near the end of last semester and said he was surprised it was stolen in broad daylight.

“The police said it was possible that [the thieves] followed me around for a while,” he said.

Chan said he thought he had a strong lock but now he hasn’t ridden his bike to school since.

“I would suggest not riding to school or taking [the bike] into class,” he said.

Journalism senior Jeremy Rudy said he’s had two bikes stolen since he started at ASU, once from the Tempe campus and once from the Downtown campus.

One bike was stolen near the Memorial Union after being left overnight, he said, and the second was taken from the Downtown campus last semester.

“It was 50 or 60 feet from the security desk at the journalism building,” he said, adding that it was a borrowed bike. “It was stolen in broad daylight.”

Rudy now uses a heavy-duty U-lock and a cable lock for his tires, he said.

“Just get a terrible bike and make it look terrible [to avoid it being stolen,]” he said. “It’s about the transportation, [not the looks.]”

While bike theft may not seem like a significant crime, it does take away the mode of transportation for a student and is the most common theft crime on campus, he said.

“In the grand scheme of things, it’s not that serious of a crime, but when you think of the impact to students it’s pretty significant,” he said.

Hardina suggested students buy cheap bikes so they won’t cost much to replace if they’re stolen.

“The bad guys are looking for nice bikes,” he said.

Reach the reporter at nathan.meacham@asu.edu.