New drive to put squeeze on rural crime
THE IFA, Crimestoppers, the Gardai and DoneDeal have joined forces in a renewed bid to curb the problem of theft and fraud on Irish farms.
Since 2010, there have been well over 28,000 farm related crime incidents, most of them involving thefts from farms and farmyards.
The aim of the new campaign – launched this week – is to raise awareness among the public, and especially among farmers, of basic security measures that they should have in place.
Thievery from outhouses and sheds continues to be most common crime in rural Ireland although house burglaries are also high enough on the statistics.
Galway’s IFA National President, Joe Healy, advised farmers to seriously consider embracing the TheftStop scheme where machinery is individually marked with an ID that cannot be removed.
“In the last 10 months, it has been rolled out across 12 counties – Laois, Offaly, Kilkenny, Galway, Cavan, Monaghan, Cork, Cavan, Limerick, Meath, Sligo and Leitrim. We recognise the importance of providing support and assistance to our members because of the prevalence of crime in rural communities.
Our Crime Prevention Officer, Colin Connolly, is working through our County Executive network to give farmers his insight as a former Garda and by offering practical advice and anti-crime tips,” said Joe Healy.
He advised farmers to sign up to the TheftStop scheme (www.theftstop.ie) Marked and branded items are significantly less attractive to criminals to steal as they’ll be more easily recognisable by the public and harder to sell on, said Joe Healy.
Information on any suspicious activity can be given anonymously to the Crimestoppers confidential telephone service by calling 1800 25 00 25. Alternatively, information can be provided to your local Garda station.
Tim Dalton, Chairman, Crimestoppers said that they provided a fully confidential means for every citizen to report crime, without fear of recrimination.
Calls were free, he said, and the information could be given completely anonymously. The service consistently elicits very valuable information to assist investigations in both rural and urban Ireland,” said Tim Dalton.
“As well as enabling members of the public to report crime safely and anonymously, an ongoing task of Crimestoppers is to encourage the spread of information to make the public more aware of steps we can all take to reduce the risk of becoming crime victims in the first place.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.