DEERFIELD — Local residents conducting in-person transactions from online marketplaces such as Craigslist now have a safe place to do business.
A new sign posted outside the police station on Conway Street designates the area as an “internet purchase exchange location.”
The Police Department posted on its Facebook page that the sign was installed “to let everyone know that we have a place to safely conduct those internet sales.”
Adam Sokoloski, patrolman for the department, said the safe purchasing area is the result of the department’s desire to keep the public safe.
“We already have the cameras in place, it’s recorded and lit,” he said. “It’s just one of those things we thought of to keep the community safer.”
Footage from the cameras can be reviewed afterward, so if a transaction were to take a turn for the worst, he continued, police could look at the tapes and nab the perpetrator later.
Sokoloski also said the signs could work as a deterrent to stop crime before it happens. Mentioning the police station as a place to meet when conducting a transaction, he said, might prevent a would-be criminal from ripping someone off.
The sign was purchased for just under $100 using year-end funds, and was installed by the Department of Public Works for no charge.
You can reach Andy Castillo
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