Farm Worker Crime Prevention Meeting Kit

What’s At Stake

As a farm worker, you work hard for crops and cash, but you may be at risk of a crime if you are not aware of your own personal safety. Often, farm workers catch transport vehicles in the dark to work in remote locations. You need to know your work location to summon medical, fire, and/or police help.

What’s the Danger

DANGERS 

  1. Fuel: Fuel thieves often target farms under the cover of darkness when they are able to drain tanks within minutes if they are not properly protected.
  2. Lighting and CCTV cameras: Isolated farm buildings down dark lanes are easy for thieves to approach and hide in the darkness. Make sure you light up areas in and around your home and buildings.
  3. Gates: Easy access to a property and fast getaway through open or unlocked gates are attractive to thieves.
  4. Tool security: Recent times have seen a rise in smaller, more portable items of kit being stolen such as tractor GPS systems and power tools.
  5. Machinery: Thieves typically target high-value equipment and machinery and often staking out farms by day to return late at night and smash into tractor cabs under the cover of darkness.
  6. Livestock rustling: Livestock farmers are particularly vulnerable to theft and harm of stock in fields.

HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF

PROTECT PROPERTY, LAND, LIVESTOCK – WAYS TO DISCOURAGE THIEVES

Fuel Solution: 

  • To prevent theft, fit fuel bowsers with wheel clamps or hitch locks. Tanks should be housed in a secure location – within a shed (in line with regulations) or in a compound, such as a locked metal cage.
  • Consider fitting a remote fuel monitoring gauge and alarm system. Install movement sensors, CCTV and lighting around the tank.
  • Store machinery inside sheds using layers of security and ensure tractors are locked up at night. If machines must be kept outside, park with fuel caps against a fence or wall.

Lighting and CCTV cameras Solution: 

  • Install lighting and CCTV in access locations, vulnerable areas and around the perimeter of farm buildings, yards and houses. Consider audible and monitored intruder alarm systems.

Gates Solution: 

  • Restrict access to your yard with locked gates and security barriers such as bollards. If possible, establish a single gated entrance and exit, controlled by a PIN or password.
  • Field gates should be locked with good quality padlocks, chains and hinges which should be capped or inverted to prevent easy removal. Note that gates crossing a public right of way can’t be locked.

Tool security Solution:

  • Tools should be stored in a secure and alarmed building. Store portable tools such as chainsaws, jet washers and welders in a secure locked “cage” within an alarmed building.
  • Record the make and serial number of power tools, by using the first two letters of your farm’s name, or other identifying marks. Alternatively, use forensic property marking systems such as Smart Water or Selecta DNA.

Machinery Solution:

  • Use trackers, immobilisers and CESAR registration marks on tractors and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) to deter thieves. Avoid leaving vehicles where they can be easily seen by criminals scouting for theft opportunities.
  • Consider mechanical devices to anchor down quads, and fit wheel clamps to trailers. Know what you own – record all makes and models and take photographs to help police investigate and aid insurance claims.

Livestock rustling Solution:

  • Regularly check fields with livestock and keep fences, hedges and perimeters in good repair. Always tag your stock using a recommended method, but also consider advanced marking systems using coded microdots.

FINAL WORD

Crime in rural areas is property orientated. Though property crimes are individually considered less serious than violent crimes, on a collective basis, the magnitude of property crime in rural areas outstrips the seriousness of violent crime.