Actualy the orginal thread was started by superslomo.
Oddly enough, my bike is registered in the 20th Precinct. Not beause I live in the 20th Precinct, on the Upper West Side, but becuase they were doing bike registrations at the Family Bike Festival in Riverside park. As far as I know neither my local precinct, or the 9th precinct would have access to that data. If cyclists are going to have to prove ownership on the spot maybe that should be a city-wide database? Or maybe NYPD should try using a little common sense and follow their own guidelines?