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The Lexington Police Department is offering a Safe Exchange Zone outside of the station, giving a space where people can meet up to conclude sales made online in a safe, well-monitored place.
The idea for the Safe Exchange Zone came as a result of the rise in robberies and other scams occurring with people buying and selling things through online markets like Facebook Marketplace.
Over the past three years, numerous reports from around the country describe crimes where people arrange to meet someone to sell something, only to be robbed when they arrive to the meeting place. Two different individuals were arrested last month in Washington, D.C., for robbing people after arranging to meet them through Facebook Marketplace, and over a three-month period in late summer and early fall of 2022, 19 people were the victim of similar robberies in Chicago.
While Lexington hasn’t seen those kinds of robberies, Lexington Police Chief Angela Greene said that the department is “trying to be proactive … to keep our community safe.”
“We know that we don’t live in a bubble, so we want to provide an area that, if individuals are conducting online sales or buying items online and they’re making arrangements to meet strangers, that they have a safe place they can come to that is well lit and is monitored by security cameras 24-7,” she said.
The department used funds acquired through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to enhance the security cameras that will be monitoring the exchange zone and to order signage indicating where it will be located (to the right of the main entrance of the department). As of Tuesday morning, the signs hadn’t been installed.
While the zone will be constantly monitored, Chief Greene encouraged people who planned on using it to do so during the department’s business hours so that the police would be on hand if anything went wrong. Even if using it on the weekends, she recommended using it during the day and that potential buyers or sellers let someone know where they’re going and who they’re meeting “as an extra precaution.”
The area can also be utilized by families who have custody arrangements involving children, as a place to exchange them between parents or for visitation, providing “a safe space for everyone.”
No formal request or arrangements need to be made through the police department to use the exchange zone.
“We’re here to help.” Greene said. “If people have safety concerns, encourage them to reach out to us.”
