Daytona Beach, FL - Law enforcement in Volusia County won't be limited to just keeping the roads safe this Bike Week.
The Daytona Beach Police Department and the Volusia County Sheriff's Office will be conducting undercover operations all week long, especially when it comes to preventing motorcycle theft.
DBPD Deputy Chief Craig Capri says undercover officers will be keeping an eye on the usual Bike Week hangouts but will also be focused on parking lots, especially for hotels and restaurants.
Capri noted that a lot of motorcycle thieves will drive around the area in anonymous-looking box trucks, find a place where the motorcycles aren't guarded very well, make a stop, load up the bikes and get out of the area as soon as possible. That's why DBPD often keeps an eye for box trucks and other types of vehicles that can carry a motorcycle undetected.
Expect police officers to also be going into parking lots randomly to do checks. Capri says they've also provided several key businesses with police radios to use in case of emergency.
Like DBPD with its officers, VCSO is paying out lots of overtime this week to its deputies to keep things safe outside of Daytona Beach, especially with the hundreds of thousands of bikers on the roads.
Sheriff Ben Johnson - who is retiring in January after 16 years in charge of VCSO - says it's bittersweet to see his final Bike Week in charge of the county's largest law enforcement agency.
VCSO will also have undercover deputies working to prevent motorcycle thefts throughout Bike Week as well as a DUI saturation patrol on the final weekend of Bike Week that's paid through a Florida Department of Transportation grant
To prevent becoming a victim, authorities suggest using paid parking lots that have security, lock your bikes and/or vehicles and leave nothing valuable in plain sight or in saddlebags.
Over 500,000 bikers attend Bike Week every year, according to FDOT. The event generates around $75 million for the local economy every year, according to the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce.
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