Long Beach Councilwoman Suzie Price is asking for a new city law that would give police authority to bust anyone running a bicycle chop shop.

The City Council is set to discuss the proposal Tuesday. Price said such a law is needed to deter bicycle thefts, and to give authorities a means to steer anyone who is stealing bicycles in order to finance a drug habit toward treatment.

“Every time you go to an encampment, or a place where homeless gather, you are just inundated with bike parts,” she said. “It’s clear that the bike parts are being used as currency to purchase drugs.”

Selling stolen bicycles and parts is already, of course, a crime. But it’s not always easy for police officers to know for a fact that a stolen bicycle is indeed stolen, since there’s no requirement for bicycle owners to register their property in a similar manner to the way that cars and trucks are registered, according to Price’s request for council action. A lack of clear proof that a crime has occurred inhibits any actions to arrest malefactors and to return stolen bicycles to their rightful owners.

Price’s proposal offers a possible method of getting around that problem by prohibiting activities that may go along with a bicycle theft. It may not be immediately provable that someone selling a cache of bicycles on a Long Beach sidewalk is trying to make a profit off of stolen goods, but Price’s request would make it illegal for someone to sell bicycles or bike parts—stolen or not—on public grounds.

“It deters bike theft for sure, because in order to have a chop shop, you need to steal bikes,” Price said.

Price is asking the City Attorney’s office to draft an ordinance that may eventually be voted into law.

Here’s what she would like to see the city’s legal team incorporate into a new law:

A ban on selling five or more bicycles on public property. Additional prohibitions would apply to such actions as putting together, taking apart, distributing or storing more than five bicycles in this manner.

Extending the above-prohibited activities to any bicycle frame missing its gears or cables, or with its brake cables cut. The ban would also apply to anyone with three or more bicycles that have missing parts, as well as anyone trying to deal, store or distribute five or more bicycle parts.

City support for legal bicycle repair spots.

Exemptions for people working for a bona fide business or who repairing a single bicycle while its owner is present.

Price also asked for procedures allowing the City Prosecutor’s office to try violations of the prospective law as a misdemeanor or an infraction, the latter of which can result in a fine, but no jail time. She also said it’s her intention that if anyone who runs afoul of the prospective law is also be someone who may benefit from addiction treatment services, that person would end up with the connections and incentive to receive care.

“If they are arrested, they will hopefully have access to the clinician that’s in the jail,” she said.

Price also wants anyone accused of breaking the prospective ordinance to given instructions on how to recover any confiscated goods that actually belong to them.

Long Beach police track bicycle thefts, and official numbers show 309 crimes recorded as bicycle thefts in all of 2017. That’s 53 percent below the five-year average for that particular offense. Official numbers may undercount the total number of bicycle thefts, however, since such crimes can sometimes be recorded as other offenses, such as a burglary or petty theft.

Bicycle owners often worry about losing their possessions to thieves, said Veronica Acevedo at Torres Bicycle Shop, in the city’s Wrigley Area.

“We always tell them, ‘You want a good U-lock,'” she said, referring to her advice for customers to buy a sturdy metal lock.

The council has already voted to support a voluntary registration system, but Price said its implementation is still in progress. Her request acknowledged the difficulty of using the city’s power to address the problem of stolen bikes dealt over the Internet without any rules calling for bicycles’ serial numbers to be recorded by transacting parties.

Council members Dee Andrews, Al Austin and Daryl Supernaw have added their names as supporters of the proposal.

The council meeting is scheduled to begin 5 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 333 W. Ocean Blvd.