MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) - The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) is seeing a surge of robberies associated with dating apps throughout the city.

“In Milwaukee we’ve seen a recent increase in the number of reported robberies, there’s certainly more crimes that happen that don’t get reported,” Alderman Peter Burgelis said. “I think there’s always an inherent risk whenever you’re meeting someone online.”

The robberies typically involve the suspect setting up a meet up with the victim and then robbing them or having other suspects commit the robbery. 

“When you’re meeting a stranger from online you need to be cautious,” Burgelis said. “You need to have your wits about you and do that in a public place, tell a friend where you’re going, share your location with friends.”

For Burgelis, the issue hits close to home, his friend Dino was killed in 2014 while meeting someone from an online dating app. 

“A friend of mine was murdered in Philadelphia in a similar circumstance in 2014, his murder is still unsolved,” Burgelis said. “That’s probably the most tragic and unfortunate result of something like this happening.”

Stephanie Smith and her husband Wade met online in 2020 and are now married. 

The two spent months talking before they met up for a first date. 

“For me I always felt like it was really important to always meet in a public place,” Smith said. “I didn’t want him or anybody in that case to have a lot of information about me.”

MPD has a full list of online dating red flags, types of scams, how to safely online date, and more here.