Coppell looks to combat theft by transitioning to cashless facilities

Arianna Morrison | Star Local Media

 

Coppell City Council met on Tuesday, Jan. 24 to hear information regarding cashless transactions at city facilities.

Kim Tiehen, the Director of Strategic Financial Engagement for the city of Coppell, shared information about why city facilities have or will transition to cashless operations, what steps the city is currently taking, and how customers are paying.

“The move to cashless facilities was to address two areas of concern,” Tiehen said. “The first area of concern is safety. Safety concerns for both employees and customers. The other area of concern is around fraud risk. For example, there’s a lack of a safety net against allegations of theft, so when there’s a cash shortage, it’s hard to determine whether it was an error or rather there was theft.”

To address these concerns, city staff met to come up with the idea to go completely cashless. This would mean city facilities would accept only cards and checks or consider contactless or mobile payment methods.

City staff also considered creating a single cashiering site for Coppell, but decided it would be a huge inconvenience for people who may be located on different sides of town.

In 2016, Coppell had their first facility go cashless which was adult athletics concession stands which were serving the city’s adult kickball and adult softball leagues. In 2017, the CORE outdoor pool snack shack went cashless, along with the CORE going fully cashless during post-COVID reopening in 2020.

When the Coppell Arts Center opened, it also opened as a cashless facility. This month, the city transitioned the senior center and tennis and pickleball center to cashless.

“All of these transitions have happened extremely smoothly with very little negative feedback from our customers,” said Jessica Carpenter, Director of Community Experiences for the City of Coppell. “Staff continued to track comments as well as instances where customers show up with only cash as a payment method and these have happened, but they’re extremely rare.”

Customers at the facilities above can currently pay through personal checks, cashier’s checks, credit cards, and debit cards. The CORE, senior center, and tennis and pickleball center also accept “Active Cash,” which is a gift card option through the facility’s registration system.

Through all facilities, city staff found that only 6% of customers are currently paying using cash, 26% are paying using credit cards, and 68% are paying in other ways, which includes bank drafts, online payments, or checks.

There are still two facilities in Coppell that are currently accepting cash, but city staff may be transferring them into cashless facilities in the future.