Imagine if The Police had a programme running looking for similarities between recent bike theft reports and new "bikes for sale" on fbmp and elsewhere online?
(Rather than the owner giving it a go)
I suppose then they'd have to actually treat it as theft and record a crime
Although I think the reason many police forces are reluctant to record bike theft is they feel they are unlikely to solve it, so it would make their targets harder to achieve.
But this would make it easier.
FB, ebay and the rest could easily automatically check images haven't just been lifted from elsewhere too.
It's not like they can't afford it