Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at the Ploughing on Tuesday, the Garda Commissioner urged farmers to engage with the “Lock Up and Light Up” campaign.
“Part of what we are doing on our stand today is the ‘lock up and light up’ campaign, making sure that we encourage people to make their homes safer,” Garda Commissioner Norin O’Sullivan said. “On our stand the local crime prevention officers are giving out packs to help make people more aware of what they can do. For example, statistics would show that a lot of burglaries are opportunistic, so it could be an open door or an open window. ‘Lock up and light up’ might be a simple message but it’s a really important one.”
We have a lot of personal items of property, including farm machinery, jewellery and personal items, that we haven’t been able to reunite with their owners
On Thursday at the Ploughing An Garda Siochana will launch its “property recovered” campaign.
“We have a lot of personal items of property, including farm machinery, jewellery and personal items, that we haven’t been able to reunite with their owners,” O’Sullivan said. “So if everybody gets on the Garda Twitter page and Garda.ie they’ll see where their local Garda station has the property on display.”
Listen to an interview with the Garda commissioner in our podcast below:
She views Operation Thor as a success, citing the reduction in burglaries as a key outcome.
“Statistics show that property crime is way down, burglary is down 35% which is significant,” she said.
IFA security check-list
One tool farmers can use to make their property more secure is the online check-list launched by the IFA at the National Ploughing Championships.
The check-list lets farmers navigate through nine areas of risk on the farm such as livestock, vehicles and tools.
"Simple questions will be presented to the user, they will answer either yes or no to those questions and with each answer that they provide, a small bit of advice is given ot them on their crime prevention," the IFA's crime prevention executive Colin Connolly told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Listen to an interview with Colin Connolly in our podcast below:
This means each visitor to the website receives advice tailored to the security risks on their farm. For example, one question relates to vehicles and whether they have keys. If the answer is yes, a safe key box is suggested. Once completed, the survey returns a score out of 100% to give an idea of the scale of improvements needed.
Thomas Hubert contributed reporting for this story.