A bill recently passed by the Pennsylvania Senate would provide funding to create safe exchange zones for custody exchanges and online marketplace sales. These zones will have video surveillance and be near a law enforcement office or in a public area.
Clearfield Borough Council members established a safe exchange zone last year in the parking lot of the former police building. Earlier in the year, Clearfield police merged with Lawrence Township police to form the "Clearfield Regional Police Department." They're now based in the Lawrence Township Police Department's building.
Clearfield Mayor Mason Strouse said the parking lot next to the municipal building was already well-lit and has security cameras. All they had to do was install a safe exchange zone sign.
“The sign says ‘Reserved for child custody, E-commerce and private property exchanges.' And it says that it's under 24-hour surveillance," Strouse said. "And, 'If police response is needed, please call 9-1-1, or...' and then it has the non-emergency number as well.”
Strouse said he’s seen many people in the community using the zone. He said more municipalities should create these zones.
“I think it's something that can be done very easily, and I think it's something that, you know, even if it helps one family or makes a child feel safer just that one time or make someone selling something feel safer, you know, it's well worth it," Strouse said.
Chris Henry, a Clearfield resident, says he hasn’t used the safe exchange zone, but thinks it’s a good idea.
“There was one time I bought a coffee maker, a Keurig coffee maker off a guy, and he met me at the truck stop, and he pulled in there in like an old beat up Lincoln Continental and kind of scared me," Henry said.
Henry says the sale did go through without any problems, but he would like more security with future sales.
Sen. Wayne Langerholc is the prime sponsor of the bill to create grant funding for municipalities to establish safe exchange zones. He said they can prevent tragedies like the one in Johnstown three years ago, where a woman was killed during a Facebook Marketplace exchange.
Bellefonte also has a safe custody exchange location, but it goes a step further than the safe exchange zones. At the Centre County Child Access Center, staff monitor exchanges and can intervene when necessary. The CAC opened in 2008, following a custody-exchange homicide in Mill Hall.
Safe exchange zones funded under the state Senate bill do not have to have trained staff on site. The bill, which now awaits action in the state House, specifies safe exchange zones must have video surveillance, a "safe exchange zone" sign with emergency numbers, and be within 100 feet of a local police department, county sheriff's office, state trooper barracks or an area with an "active public presence."
