A post created by the Farmville Police Department announcing a new internet purchase exchange area for residents was passed around Farmville residents through social media this past week. The only issue was that it was the wrong Farmville Police Department.
The post had been created by the police department from Farmville, North Carolina, a town roughly three hours away from Farmville, Virginia.
The post had been drawnsignificant attention from Farmville, Virginia residents and eventually came to the attention of the Farmville Police Department in Virginia.
The Chief of Police for the Farmville Police Department in Virginia, Chief Curtis Davis, said that because the post brought enough attention and positive feedback, the police department is considering to create a similar area.
“We’re open to any good ideas. We’ve talked with the town manager, and the town manager and I have considered some options, and we’re going to look and see what we can possibly do. It seems that it was very well received by the community, which is always a plus, so of course we’re going to look and see what we can do to try and create our own,” said Curtis.
The area could possibly be in the police department’s own parking lot, but Curtis said that other parking lots will be looked at as well. The ideal parking lot would have video capability and enough space for several vehicles, as well as the time capability for that space.
According to Curtis, if the police department’s parking lot or any other lot used, it would probably be designated as an internet purchase exchange area after 5:00 p.m. This would allow enough space for vehicles during business hours.
“That’s the consideration we have to look at. That’s why we’re going to take a little bit of time, but we want to make sure that we do it right, and we can get good surveillance and also have a presence of our police officers coming and going. So, we’ll look at our lot and any other location that we possibly can in order to make sure we do it so that we give people the maximum security that we can give,” said Curtis.
Although a police department parking lot may appear safer for internet purchase exchanges, Curtis made it clear that it would not necessarily assist in all aspects of security.
“We just want to make sure that we have a system in place for it to be monitored as well as possible, and that our sign reflects exactly what we expect. Not only does it provide some security, but we’ve got to make sure folks understand that there’s still no guarantee. If you’re looking at counterfeit money, or you’re not happy with the product or something happens, it’s not like there’s an officer that’s necessarily standing there. So, there’s still going to be some security issues that we need to work through to see how exactly safe we can make it.”
Follow The Rotunda for any additional updates.
