Orange County authorities this week touted the success of a novel effort to get e-bikes — which they have characterized as a dangerous and deadly weapon — off the streets.
The Orange County district attorney’s office on Sunday held an e-bike buyback event modeled after gun buyback programs, in which people could trade an e-bike for a gift card ranging from $200 to $1,000 depending on the type of e-bike surrendered. The event, which authorities believe is the first of its kind in the U.S., drew both massive lines and criticism from some people online.
“We budgeted over $100,000 for this [and] we didn’t think in our wildest dreams we would hit that number,” said Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer.
Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office whom Spitzer credited with coming up with the concept, estimated that nearly 1,000 vehicles — including e-bikes, e-scooters and e-motorcycles — were surrendered in total, filling up nine 26-foot U-Haul trucks. Even after authorities ran out of gift cards, people continued giving up their e-bikes, she said.
The office intends to have an environmental contractor remove the lithium batteries, which it says will be properly disposed of. The bikes will then be taken to a recycling center and shredded, according to Edds.
The first person in line arrived at midnight Sunday, according to Spitzer, and the last gift card of the day went to a father-son duo who told him they began waiting in line at 7:30 a.m. The event started at 10 a.m., and the first 75 participants got a pair of tickets to a Los Angeles Angels baseball game.
The gift cards were paid for with asset forfeiture funds reserved for crime prevention. Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley contributed another $5,000.
The program was the subject of some online criticism, including that it was a waste of resources.
“It seemed like a big waste of government money, but I do feel bad for the people who stood in line for nothing,” wrote one Reddit user on the gift cards running out.
“Just like gun buybacks, ‘no questions asked’ buybacks are meant to incentivise criminals or those with illegal bikes to get rid of them,” said another, adding, “This is a performative action.” (Spitzer said bikes that had a serial number on them were run through databases to ensure they hadn’t previously been reported as stolen.)
Spitzer acknowledged the blowback in an interview with The Times.
“I’m getting lit up on Nextdoor, and I’ve been responding to people,” said Spitzer, noting that much of the criticism focused on whether the program was a good use of funds — to which he would respond that the money came from asset forfeiture funds — and whether the bikes being surrendered could have been stolen.
There’s nothing technically stopping people from using the money they received from giving up an e-bike to buy another one. The gift cards provided were for Target, Walmart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Best Buy, according to a district attorney’s office statement.
The district attorney’s office did not require gift card recipients to make any such promises, Spitzer said, since the “goal was to get people to turn these things in, and I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time looking at people’s motivation.”
Spitzer acknowledged that it was too soon to know whether the buyback event would make a difference in street safety. But he sees the event as one element in what he calls a multi-pronged push to reduce risky riding and collisions. Other efforts include pushing for legislative fixes, such as mandating that young riders take a safety class and requiring a license; increasing enforcement efforts by police and the county Sheriff’s Department; and education, such as offering voluntary safety classes.
“I’ve been very aggressive,” Spitzer said. “I’m not just prosecuting kids. I’m prosecuting their parents if I can prove that their parents knowingly bought them an e-bicycle or -motorcycle that was inappropriate for their age, or helped them modify it so that it would go faster.”
The district attorney’s office has since January filed child endangerment charges against four parents suspected of allowing their children to illegally ride e-motorcycles, according to the statement.
Spitzer is considering future e-bike buyback events but with some tweaks, including setting up multiple processing lines to move people through faster and limiting it to Orange County residents or those with a connection to the county. (Participation at Sunday’s event was “no questions asked,” so they did not check for proof of residency.)
The more important factor in whether the event will make a comeback, he said, is funding.
“I don’t have unlimited asset forfeiture, so the question is, is this something that the taxpayers are going to be willing to support?” Spitzer said. “We may have to use taxpayer money to do it, and I’ve been trying to avoid that so far.”
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