Well, this is very interesting - In San Francisco, a Twitter account is watching over your bikes.

Behind the Anti-Bike Theft Unit is Officer Matt Friedman of the San Francisco Police Department. The Anti-Bike Theft Unit is a program that utilizes Twitter and GPS trackers in order to stop bike thefts in the city.

The fundamental tools in Friedman's utility belt: "bait bikes" fitted with GPS trackers and left chained up on the streets of San Francisco.

What happens is the GPS-enabled bait allows Officer Friedman and the Anti-Bike Theft Unit track bike thefts in real-time, and eventually capture the thief.

When such a bait bike is stolen, the Anti-Bike Theft Unit tracks down the thief, arrests them and then posts a picture of the thief to their Twitter account.
While shaming bike thieves, the Twitter account also posts advice and tips for bike security and safety: suitable locking techniques, registering the bike's serial number with the police and using "Is this a bait bike?" stickers to deter thieves.

It seems that in 2012, an estimated 4,085 bikes were stolen in San Francisco, a city that doesn't skimp on the price of its bikes. That haul had a total estimated value of $4.6 million.
As reported by the New York Times, from 2006 to 2012, bike theft has increased by 70%.
However the increase in bike thefts complicates the continued increase in bike use, especially in San Francisco where the city "embarked on a five-year plan to make itself more bike accessible", and ranks fifth in the U.S. in the number of residents that commute by bike, according to the Census Bureau.

Last July, San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved $75,000 to support local efforts against bike theft and strive for a 50% reduction in bike thefts by August 2018. It was this legislation that spurred the creation of the Anti-Bike Theft Unit.

The program follows in the footsteps of anti-theft programs like the one at University of Wisconsin-Madison, which saw a 40% drop in bike thefts after initiating a "bait bike program".

As it appears police departments all over the country are including social media more and more. According to a social media survey in 2013, almost 96% of police departments in the U.S. use social media in some way. And, 80% believe that social media has already helped in solving crimes.

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