Kannapolis police provide 'safe zones' for public transactions

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — The Kannapolis Police Department opened e-commerce safe zones Monday to allow residents to meet and complete transactions started on websites like Craigslist.

The safe zone idea started with an email from Kannapolis resident Vicki Graham sent on March 18. Graham said she got the idea from a police department in Georgia.

"Hopefully, it's going to help a lot of people," Graham said.

Kannapolis Police Lt. Terry Spry said the zones were very inexpensive to set up.

"Just essentially the striping and the signs being placed up was the cost to the city," said Spry.

The safe zones, parking spots outside the police department on South Main Street, are monitored 24 hours a day by surveillance cameras and are in well-lit areas. 

People can also use the lobby of the police department to conduct their business.

"There's no way to say with 100 percent that it will eliminate all crime, but it will certainly discourage anyone who's doing illegitimate business," Spry said.

There have been several recent deadly e-commerce transactions across the nation.

In January, a Georgia couple was murdered when they tried to buy a vintage car they saw on a Craigslist ad.

Last month, Appalachian State graduate Michelle Wilkins went to a woman's home in Colorado to answer an ad for baby clothes for her unborn child. The woman attacked Wilkins and cut her child from her womb. Wilkins survived the attack but her baby did not.

"You just never really know what the ill intent is of an individual," Spry said.

That's why police said a safe zone is such a good idea. They said if a buyer or seller is not willing to meet at the safe zone, the transaction is not worth it.

"If it's legitimate, why wouldn't you feel comfortable do it here?" Spry said.

When the Kannapolis Police Department moves to their new location later this year, officials will establish another e-commerce safe zone there.