BARRHEAD-The Barrhead and Area Crime Coalition (BARCC) wants to help people who might have third person dealings be a little bit safer.
BARCC is a partnership between Woodlands County, the Town of Barrhead and the County of Barrhead, as well as the Barrhead RCMP and Rural Crime Watch.
It was formed in the spring of 2018, in part due to discussions Peace River-Westlock MP Arnold Viersen had with all parties, come up with initiatives to combat rural crime.
Town of Barrhead mayor who chairs the committee said BARCC is always looking at ways they can make people safer and one of the ideas they came up with is providing people with options to make themselves and/or their belongings safer.
"One of the ideas we came up with is having a public site where people can go and meet others, who are more than often not strangers, exchange things and feel safe," he said.
McKenzie used the example of two people who might have arranged to meet to exchange something they may have purchased over the Internet, such as something arranged through one of the social media marketplace pages. He noted that many other communities have similar sites. For example, in Edmonton, one of the safe exchange sites is an Edmonton Police Department parking lot.
"Things always have the potential to go sideways. There are a lot of scammers out there, so what we wanted to do is have a fairly safe public location," he said. "It would also be a good spot for parents who have joint-custody hand over their kids to the other parent. It is always good to have a well-populated, public place just in case something gets out of hand. Or better yet prevent things from getting out of hand because it is in the public eye."
The location BARCC chose is the Barrhead Freson Bros. parking lot.
Some of the reasons BARCC decided on the location was because of its central location, its visibility at all hours of the day and in the case of an incident is monitored by security cameras.
"We've talked to [Freson Bros. manager Aaron Coutts] and he is all on board," McKenzie said.
Currently, BARCC is working on putting up the appropriate signage, which is being provided by Rural Crime Watch.
At the same time, McKenzie said BARCC plans to embark on an educational campaign, informing residents about precautions people can take when arranging for various exchanges.
