Police are proposing that online sales could take place in police parking lots for added security.
Selling online used to be a great way to buy and sell virtually anything and everything.
Recently however, there have been several cases of sales going wrong, such as theft of the item from the victim, often things like cell phones, laptops, bicycles, and so on.
However, there have also been some high-profile cases.
In 2014, a Vancouver man who had previously sold a number of small items on Craigslist, placed an advert to sell jewelry. The advert did not make it clear that it was costume jewelry and the man was later found severely beaten and his apartment robbed. Police say he has suffered permanent injury.
In another high profile case, an Ontario man advertised his pickup on Kijiji in 2013 Two men came to his home and the trio went for a test drive, but owner Tim Bosma and the truck disappeared. His burned body was found later on a farm about 60 kilometers away. A murder trial is now ongoing.
In another case, a man in Vancouver offered a laptop for sale for $600 but when the potential buyer showed up to meet the buyers in a public place, he was robbed at gunpoint. A 19 year old has been arrested.
Now police are looking into the possibility of allowing transactions to take place in police parking lots, or courthouse buildings.
Niagara Regional police Chief Jeff McGuire recently told the police services board the force is talking with the region, which owns police property, about liability issues.
The Niagara Police board chairman suggests people use official buildings instead of their homes until the issue is better understood and has asked the chief to start a pilot programme as soon as possible.
However another Niagara board member insisted that if police there were to offer such as service there would have to be steps to avoid liability. Those concerns arise as people would meet in the parking lot but police wouldn’t actually be monitoring transactions which could lead to a false sense of security.
In Ontario, two smaller communities, Orangeville and Midland have created so-called ‘safe zones”.
The communities began to offer the service in April after hearing about the idea from Vancouver police a few weeks earlier. Quoted in the Guelph Mercury news, Orangeville Constable. Scott Davis said, “Our chief really liked the idea and thought it would benefit members of the community. For several years, our parking lot has facilitated child custody exchanges between families, so opening up and advertising our space is just an extension of what was already happening.”
Niagara Regional Chief McGuire says that the location itself provides some protection.
Quoted in Postmedia, he said, “You would expect, if somebody’s looking to rip somebody off or something’s going to happen, and the person says, ‘Meet me at a police station,’ that’s probably going to deter a lot of those people.”
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