‘Dob In An Illegal Trail Bike Rider’: New Riverina PD campaign targets offenders

A new police campaign encourages residents to report any sightings of illegal trail bike use in the Riverina.

The Riverina Police District has launched a new campaign, ‘Dob In An Illegal Trail Bike Rider’, following an increase in reports of illegal trail bike activities.

Riverina Police District Inspector Rowen Harris encourages residents to report sightings of illegal trail bike use in the suburbs, which has been an ongoing issue for years in Wagga Wagga.

“Riding a trail bike on the roadway or in a public area is illegal. You can ride them on private property or at a motocross site, but beyond that, they’re not allowed,” Inspector Harris said.

“If you hear them — they sound like a whipper snipper on steroids — leaving a neighbour’s house, riding up and down the street, or cutting through back alleys, that’s when we ask you to give us a call.

“These bikes aren’t designed with all the engineering required for a bike to be deemed road-safe. The way they are ridden and their design can both be concerns, especially if they’ve been modified. It’s a safety issue for them and other road users.”

He said one avenue police were investigating was whether the riders were scouting homes for potential burglaries.

“We’re following the link between trail bikes and property crime in suburbs. While certain suburbs have a higher concentration of these incidents, illegal trail bike riding is happening across the Riverina — not just here but statewide,” he said.

Due to an ongoing investigation, Insp Harris declined to comment on whether the trail bike activities were linked to organised crime or simply a few troublemakers going for a ride.

“That’s part of an ongoing series of investigations into who is responsible and what they’re up to,” he said.

Wagga Wagga City Councillor Richard Foley, who has advocated for more community safety against illegal trail biking activities in the city, welcomed the police’s new initiative.

“It’s encouraging to see action being taken. Ironically, I filed a notice of motion last week, but it just missed the deadline for the [Monday 10 March] council meeting. It will now go to the next meeting to address this issue in its entirety,” he said.

“From the council’s perspective, we’re looking at the notice of motion in a broad sense — working with police but also encouraging the public to come forward. The more reports we receive from the public, the better.

“Additionally, I’m looking into a cost analysis for installing bollards, barricades, fencing, and other measures to make it difficult or nearly impossible for riders to access public lands, easements, and drainways where they evade police detection.

“We also have a tour of the police station coming up as councillors to better understand what they’re up against. Once that tour is complete, we’ll release our position and report on it,” he said.

“I want to see action. This has been going on for years. Just like the illegal dumping issue — which I tackled myself because no-one else would — this needs to be addressed. And now, with the CCTV footage we released the other day, illegal dumping has stopped. Remarkably, nothing has been dumped there for 48 hours.

“The CCTV project is also part of this effort to help detect these bikes. I encourage the community to share any CCTV footage they have — whether from streets, public places, or private property — so we can combine resources and work together to combat this issue.”

Insp Harris said Riverina officers had retrieved two bikes in the past week, one of which was stolen from Boorooma and found by police the next morning.

The second bike was retrieved by the highway patrol after officers turned on their lights to pull it over, and the rider dumped it and ran.

Insp Harris said police were tackling the issue with specially trained officers, police trail bikes, and the highway patrol.

“We also use resources like POLAIR (police helicopters) to track riders. However, much of our work relies on community reports — knowing where and when these incidents occur helps us take targeted action,” he said.

Insp Harris acknowledges that some residents may be frustrated with the riders but encourages them not to retaliate.

“Frustration is understandable, but if you’re throwing an object or wetting someone who is operating a fairly weighted object that is travelling at a rate of knots, it becomes dangerous,” he said.

“If they come off, it becomes an uncontrolled object. There’s the health of the person riding the bike to consider, but also the safety of people and property around them,” he said.

The Riverina Police District is urging anyone with CCTV, dashcam, GoPro, or phone videos of illegal trail bike riding incidents to come forward and help with the ongoing investigations.