Within the walls of the Redmond Police Department (RPD) is a room, filled with a variety of found items ranging from unopened packages of socks and undergarments to shoes, backpacks and purses.

These things take up space within the room but the items that usually occupy the most space are the bicycles. While the number of bikes the department receives varies throughout the year, evidence technician Jennifer Assaker said they average about one bike per week.

“It’s probably more than people think,” she said about how many the RPD receives.

The bikes are found in various locations including residential neighborhoods, parks and trails — typically in bushes, said Assaker.

“They usually look like they’ve been dumped,” she said.

If a bike they come across is rusted and doesn’t look usable, Assaker said they will contact the city’s Public Works Department for a pickup. However, if the bike and/or its various parts are in decent shape, it will go in to the evidence room — where it stays a minimum of 60 days. After that, Assaker said she will donate them to either Bicycles for Humanity Seattle (B4HS) or the ARAS (Acceptance, Respect, Affection and Support) Foundation. She donates two or three times a year to the organizations, with anywhere from 15-20 bikes in one drop. The donated bikes (or just working parts) are eventually shipped to various villages in Africa.

According to its website, B4HS focuses its efforts on South Africa. Mary Trask, community service director for ARAS, said they work with Village Bicycle Project (VBP) in Seattle, which sends the bikes to Ghana and Sierra Leone.

Meg Watson, operations director for VBP said they collect the unwanted bikes from various countries.

“They come from all over the USA,” she said. “They come from Canada; they come from the UK.”

Watson, who started with VBP in 2006 as a volunteer, said they work with a number of bicycle advocacy groups throughout the world. These groups’ goals include keeping bikes out of the waste stream.

Throughout the year, VBP ships more than 20 containers with about 475 bikes (more if there are smaller children’s bikes included). Of those 20-plus containers, Watson said three or four usually come from bikes donated through Pacific Northwest-based organizations such as ARAS.

Rather than giving people the bikes for free, Watson said VBP holds free one-day bike repair workshops for local groups in Ghana and Sierra Leone to teach people how to fix the bikes. Those who attend the workshops are then able to purchase a bike at a 75 percent discount off the retail price. Watson said they use this model because if someone receives a bike for free and it needs some sort of repair, the person is more likely to stop using it because they didn’t have to pay for it. If the person has to pay for the bike, she said, it becomes an item of value for them. In addition, they will also know how to fix the bike after attending the workshop.

Watson said VBP also has a “bike library” program in which they lend bikes to school girls who have to walk eight or more miles to and from school. The girls are able to use the bikes for a year and since VBP lends them out, the girls’ families can’t take them away or get rid of them. VBP also has bikes available for boys, but the library program is specific for girls as they are not as prominent in bike culture and least likely to go to school and more likely to have to stay home to help out and do chores, Watson said.

She said having a bike in Africa can be life changing: Students can get to school — which may be as many as 10 miles away from their village — faster; health care providers can travel to more villages more efficiently; farmers can get to their farms faster and be more productive and merchants and vendors can carry and sell more of their wares to more locations.

For Assaker, being able to donate the bikes to a worthy cause is a “fantastic feeling” as they have historically been the source of problems for the police department.

“(Bikes are) not easy to deal with,” she said, referring to their size and penchant for taking up space. “They are the bane of the police department.”

She said she is happy that they will receive a second life and provide transportation for other communities through the two nonprofits’ efforts.

“I feel strongly that we’re doing something for the greater good,” Assaker said.