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There's other things they can do rather than just more patrols. At my university town in the UK the police would plant bait bikes and watch from afar, arresting thieves after they rode off. I know they caught some, because they caught someone from one of my lectures.

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That works against organized crime (and only until they wisen up to the practice and learn to spot bait bikes or the cops planting them) but not against people stealing bikes for a quick buck. If you're at that point in your life where you steal bikes to sell them for a little bit of cash, the risk of a bike being bait doesn't seem like much of a deterrent.

It's also not scalable, which means decisions will have to be made about where it is implemented, which will likely prioritize wealthier areas over poorer ones.

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