SASKATOON (Staff) – Farms are sitting ducks for thieves.
But by keeping an eagle eye on the neighborhood, crooks can be controlled, or at least caught more quickly, says a southeast Saskatchewan farmer involved in Rural Crime Watch.
Tom McDougall, of Lebret, Sask., said farms are tasty targets for thieves these days because farm shops and homes contain many more salable things than they used to.
“If I was a break and enter guy, I wouldn’t bother with the city,” said McDougall. “Out here we’re like fishes in a barrel.”
Read Also
Agriculture ministers commit to enhancing competitiveness
Canadian ag ministers said they want to ensure farmers, ranchers and processors are competitive through ongoing regulatory reform and business risk management programs that work.
He said there is little farm families can do to protect themselves from a professional, determined criminal. But against the opportunistic thief, farmers can minimize the farm’s exposure.
“Try to remove the opportunities for petty crime,” he said. “A determined thief is not going to stop, but for the guy that drives by and sees a nice truck (deterrents can work.)”
Above all, get to know the threats out there, he said. That means talking to neighbors and the police.
“If you don’t communicate with the police, that favors the criminal,” he said.
Local people are responsible for keeping a crime watch program going, but RCMP will help set one up and will keep local people informed about crime problems and threats in the area. McDougall said he thinks even the crime watch signs that stand along the roads might make criminals leery of the area.
The crime watch program brings local farmers together with police to discuss local crime problems and how to avoid them.
McDougall said crime watch programs stress passive crime control rather than organize posses.
“We don’t go out and patrol,” he said. “We don’t get our guns and go looking for criminals.”
But he said people who see strange cars or trucks going down local roads could make a habit of jotting down a description of the vehicle and the license plate number.
Being wary of crime is more important than ever, McDougall said, because not only do farms offer more expensive goods to the criminal these days, but there are fewer eyes.
“Farms are further apart,” he said, pointing out that many houses are uninhabited for most of the day because both spouses are working off the farm.
Ken Imhoff, who manages the provincial farm stress line, said there are fewer people to see a strange car.
“I would suspect people are concerned by loss of population in rural areas. When I grew up on a farm there were a lot of farms around and you knew when a strange car went down the road.”
Ways to deter crime
- Keep the yard lights on when you go away.
- Tell a neighbor if you go away for the weekend. They might see something fishy going on while you’re gone.
- If you see something suspicious going on at a neighbor’s farm, make a note of it.
- Lock things up.
- If you are in a crime watch area, put up signs.
