Casper Police Department Donates Bikes to the Community

According to a press release by the Casper Police Department, on Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. it donated 94 total bicycles to the Casper community.

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The department got the bikes, according to the release, by various means, either because the bikes were lost, stolen, seized, or other methods.

Approximately 33 families, as well as Wyoming Probation and Parole and the Mercer House, received bicycles on Thursday, and the two organizations will provide bikes to people who may otherwise not have them.

According to the release, the department makes an effort to find the rightful owner of each bike, however, the department has the ability to take legal ownership of the bikes if several attempts are made to find the owners.

The department had previously put out a press release on Oct. 14 stating that it had around 90 bikes that it was donating in an "as is" condition, with the application deadline on Nov. 4.

The page for bike donations is no longer available on the department's website.

Kristi Oster, the community case manager with the Mercer Family Resource Center, said that they received five bikes from the police department and this is the first time they've applied for bikes.

Oster said that the people they work with will appreciate having a bike because of the need for transportation to reach resources in the community.

"I think for a lot of these people that have zero transportation, I think it gives them a fighting chance to get where they need to be and obtain the resources in the community that they need to get to," Oster said. "Casper has a lot of great resources, but when we talk to the resources, a lot of the appointments are being missed, and transportation is a huge barrier...the bus only runs certain hours at certain times, it's kind of a confusing process and they still have to get the tokens or passes, which can still be a barrier."

While snow might be an issue with a bike, Oster said that the people they work with would still prefer to have a bike.

"I asked one individual if he wanted a bike because we talked about since it was snowy, would that be helpful, would that be, like you said, frustrating," Olster said. "He said he absolutely, fully would appreciate a bike. Because he was all the way over on McKinley Street and he's walking everywhere right now. Nobody in his family has a running vehicle, so even on snowy days, he thought unless it was really super snowy, he said that would still be helpful getting him to where the resources are."