Some suburban police departments offer 'safe haven' for Internet transactions
Lake in the Hills Police Chief David Brey cautions residents buying and selling over Internet sites, such as Craigslist, to use a safe place to perform exchanges after online transactions.
The village police station, at 1115 Crystal Lake Road, has seen an increase in the number of people using its parking lot as a “safe haven” for such transactions. The department started offering the service in September.
“It's more of a proactive step to (address) what we see going on around the nation,” Brey said. “There's an increasing amount of offenses taking place during these transactions. We want people to find a safe place to conduct it. Do it in familiar surroundings where there are other people, and we would prefer you do it in a police station parking lot.”
Brey has been pushing the message through the department's Facebook page to get more people to use the police station in light of cases nationwide of people getting robbed, kidnapped and even killed after meeting strangers through online transactions.
“As the word gets out there I think more and more people will take us up on it,” Brey said.
A few suburban police departments, including Naperville, offer similar “safe haven” sites. While there have been no local cases, the recent murders of a Missouri teen and a Georgia couple trying to sell and buy a car on Craigslist underscores this real threat.
The Missouri college student, Taylor Clark, 19, who arranged to sell his sports car on Craigslist, was shot in the head and his body was dumped in a wooded area, while the perpetrator took his car, Brey said.
“That's an unfortunate example of the kind of world we live in,” Brey said.
The point hit home when Brey's 20-year-old daughter and a friend recently purchased tickets on Craigslist for the July Country Thunder Music Festivals in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.
“Unbeknown to me, they went to Woodfield Mall to buy these tickets,” Brey said. “Two college-age girls going to meet someone they don't know in the Woodfield Mall parking lot ... it's not a safe practice to do. I would have insisted (her) to meet at the Schaumburg Police Department. She was lucky she got her tickets, but unfortunately some people aren't so lucky. It's kind of an educational thing. There's a lot of people that don't know about it.”
Brey said residents can rest assured when they use the police station parking lot that someone will be monitoring at all times.
“We'll even stand by, if you want us to,” he said. “You can do it in the parking lot, or (are) welcome to come into either of the two lobbies, which are monitored 24/7.”
Naperville started the service earlier this year.
“We offer the lobby for people to come in and perform Internet transactions ... so they are not meeting in a remote location,” said Sgt. Bill Davis, department spokesman. “Hopefully, that would discourage fraud or any other type of violent crime from occurring when it's done in a police department facility. It's kind of a no-brainer.”
The lobby of the police station, at 1350 Aurora Ave., is open until 8 p.m. and the parking lot also is available for such transactions, while both are under video surveillance. “I wouldn't suggest you conduct business after 8 p.m. anyway,” Davis said.