Fezzari Bicycle Company and an anonymous donor came together Nov. 8 at an unveiling ceremony at Paul Reams Wilderness Park in Provo to generously donate five fully customized police bicycles to the Provo Police department.
Provo Police have employed the use of bicycles in the city for a long time and with the use of bicycles in the field, it gives law enforcement and citizens the ability to interact and enforce a community more personably than can be done in a patrol car.
'A lot of cities around the country are now using community-based policing, which has become very effective in getting officers out of patrol cars and on to the streets, more particularly in congested areas,' stated Chris Washburn, owner and operator of Fezzari Bicycle Co. 'In this area, we have a lot of bike paths, we have a lot of students who are on bicycles, we have the downtown Provo area, we have a lot of areas that are just easier to get at on a bicycle.'
In a recent press release, Sgt. Brandon Post commented on the many ways local citizens and businesses continue to give back to their community.
'As the Provo police department continues to promote our community-based policing initiative, citizens have volunteered to partner with us in many ways,' Post said. 'In one of these partnerships, an anonymous donor approached Chris Washburn, the owner of the Fezzari Bicycle Co., about replacing five aging Provo Police patrol bicycles. The Fezzari Bicycle Co. donated a significant portion of the (bicycles') value through service and time to completely outfit them for police work.'
'We saw a need,' Washburn said. 'Certainly we know these are tight fiscal times everywhere and we are happy to help out here locally right here in our own backyard. Hopefully this will work well for the Provo police and the work they are doing.'
The five donated Fezzari Wasatch Peak Mountain bikes, fully decked out for police purposes and ringing in at around two thousand dollars retail, are not in any way considered a small donation by the department; Provo Police expressed tremendous gratitude to the anonymous donor and Fezzari for their time and generosity.
'We would like to thank the anonymous donor and Fezzari Bicycle Co. for joining with the department to make this happen,' Post said.