Online resource for crime prevention

Thursday, June 18, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

Two Ontario farm groups have released a new online guide outlining steps farmers can take to prevent crime on their farms.

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture and Farm & Food Care Ontario developed the document called, A Practical Guide to On-Farm Security.

Statistically, property crime rates are lower in rural areas compared to urban municipalities, but when farm assets are under threat the implications can be severe, according to the June 18 press release accompanying the guide’s release. During the past 10 years, the value of non-land assets on Ontario farms has increased by more than 50 per cent.

“When there are incidents losses can be high,” says federation farm policy researcher Peter Sykanda. “Machinery is not cheap.”

Farm & Food Care Ontario executive director Crystal Mackay says “one crime on your farm is one too many. The concept is to help farm families keep their properties and assets safe. It’s good risk management.”

The guide has easy, simple things people can do, such as putting up ‘no trespassing’ signs to help secure assets and prevent “what would be considered an easy break-in by someone planning to do that,” she says.

The guide has three sections:

• Securing assets.
• Visitors on the farm.
• When to call police.

There are also sample forms that can be downloaded, such as a visitors’ log and an incident report. The guide gives suggestions on key pieces of information police will ask when responding to a security situation on a farm.

To develop the guide, the groups used information and interviews from the Ag & Food Exchange, a network of security consultants from the agriculture and agri-food sectors.

Sykanda says the groups developed the guide because “ we felt there was a need for another set of tools for farmers to work with in their toolbox.” It wasn’t created in response to a particular incident in Ontario and it doesn’t deal with farm biosecurity.

“This is about farm security and security of assets,” he says.

Protecting farm assets has been discussed in the farm community in the past but usually in response to a particular incident. “It was reactionary,” he notes. With the online guide, “we wanted to try and get out in front of the issue and give people tools on, for example, what they should ask for when people show up unexpectedly on their property.”

The guide may have additions to it in the future “as issues come up,” he says. BF