Bike Registration photo provided by Decatur Police Sgt. Jennifer Ross.

The Decatur Police Department is once again offering bicycle registration to local cyclists.

The Police Department will be set up at the Decatur Book Festival on Saturday, Sept. 5. Bike registration will be available from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the North McDonough turnaround near the Book Festival Bike Valet.

Registration is free.

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“Bicycles are a commonly stolen item and are not registered like vehicles,” the announcement from the Lt. Jennifer Ross says. “Bicycle registration includes providing owner contact information, having the manufacturer and serial number documented and having a numbered decal applied to and a photo taken of your bicycle. The process takes just a few minutes. Registering your bicycle allows officers to look up recovered bicycles and contact the owner and allows for us to quickly look up the needed information about your bicycle if it were to be stolen. The information is kept in a secured database only accessible by police department staff. We will also register scooters that do not meet the size requirements for state tag registration.”

Last month, Decatur Police said 16 bicycles were reported stolen in the city of Decatur from July 1 through Aug. 11.