This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

With people increasingly buying and selling online, and meeting in person to make the trades, Utah police want to make the customers have safe places to do business.

In the past few weeks, the Sandy and Layton police departments have created spaces outside their respective police stations where people can more safely trade goods with others. The areas in the police departments' parking lots are marked with blue signs and are under 24-hour recorded video surveillance.

Plus, "it's fairly close to the entrance of the police department," so if a crime did occur, people would "have quick access to us," said Layton Police Lt. Travis Lyman. The lieutenant noted that besides commerce transactions, "child custody exchanges would be a good [use of the space]."

The police forces have joined a growing national trend. Police departments on the East Coast, Midwest and the South have created similar "safe exchange" spaces this year, as well.

"There's so much online stuff now where people are seeing things on KSL [Classifieds] or Craigslist, and they want to meet an individual to exchange," said Sandy Police Sgt. Dean Carriger, who added that when people meet with strangers to exchange merchandise, "there's always that unknown element and risk out there."

So the police wanted to do something to help, Carriger added. Sandy created its space earlier this fall outside its department, using two blue signs to designate the section of the parking lot as an "E-commerce Exchange Zone." Layton announced the designation of its area this week, marking it as a "Safe Exchange Zone."

"If someone is unwilling to meet you there, you might want to think twice about doing business with them," Carriger said.

Neither the Layton nor the Sandy locations' surveillance feed is monitored live, but police can review the recordings if someone is victimized.

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