LAFAYETTE, La (KLFY) – The Lafayette Police Department along with the Lafayette Consolidated Government will soon introduce a new safe haven for residents to make exchanges of goods.

A portion of the police department’s parking lot will be designated as the Internet Sales & Child Exchange Zone.

Lafayette City-Parish Councilwoman, Liz Webb Hebert, is spearheading this project that she introduced to the police department during a committee meeting.

“A constituent of mine approached me about the idea saying that he had seen it happen in other cities, other states,” said Councilwoman Hebert.

It’s an idea that the Lafayette Police Department is also in favor of, due to a high number of reports that the department receives as a result of internet exchanges.

“People make purchases, they’ll meet up with someone, and they either rob them of their cellphone or their money is taken,” said Lafayette Police PIO, Cpl. Paul Mouton.

“This is just an opportunity for us, not just LCG, but the police department to eliminate some of those issues,” said Councilwoman Hebert.

The exchange zone would not only be for items sold online, but also for parents to switch off children for visitation purposes.

“We’re going to designate two parking spaces for these exchanges to occur. We’re going to have video surveillance. We’re also going to have a phone number for them to call so it alerts the officers that are in the building to be aware that an exchange is about to happen,” said Cpl. Mouton.

Cpl. Mouton says the project won’t require much funding since the department already has the majority of the equipment needed.

“I didn’t want any additional funds being spent on this project or any additional labor taking our police officers off the streets, solving crimes, etc,” said Councilwoman Hebert.

Councilwoman Hebert says they plan to roll out the exchange zone in about 2 weeks. She says LCG plans to hold a ribbon cutting for the new exchange zone once complete.