Beachwood Introduces ‘Safe Zone’ For Online Marketplaces

Brick and Toms River are just a couple of the towns around the Jersey Shore that have already created a 'safe exchange zone' to keep people who buy and sell goods online protected.

Earlier this month, the Beachwood Police Department shared a post that added Beachwood to the list of towns with 'safe zones'.

According to that post, the Safe Exchange Zone is located in the front visitor parking lot of the Beachwood Municipal Complex on Pinewald Road in Beachwood, and will have cameras trained on the spot being monitored 24/7. The recordings from the cameras will also be kept for ten days. If you can make your deal between the hours of 8a and 4p, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays), you can also have access to the lobby of the Police Department itself.

I've done a bit of the online selling lately, as I moved from one place to another and didn't want to bring everything, or needed to replace something else. My wife and my mother have done deals too, using Facebook Marketplace or LetGo or things along those lines. If you're into that after-market selling/buying world, you know how sketchy Craigslist or LetGo can be, and it's not always a great idea to give someone your home address or go to theirs. I've had people meet me outside a Wawa or the Library, but it would make sense for every police department to have a set-up like this, where people can feel like if anything goes wrong, help is right there.