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PROTECTING AGAINST ‘AGRI-CRIME’
When people think of crime,
law breaking in cities and
towns often springs to mind,
whereas the impact of
crime on farming and rural
communities can sometimes
be forgotten.
For people living in the
countryside, however, crime
can cause huge distress and
feelings of isolation. For
locksmiths and other security
professionals, helping combat
crime in the countryside can
provide better security and
represent lucrative business
opportunities.
Theft is estimated to have
cost the UK farming industry
£42.3m in 2012, according
to leading rural insurer,
NFU Mutual. Tina Hughan,
Marketing Director at ASSA
ABLOY UK, explores the
features and benefits of
correctly specifying security
products into farm buildings,
to protect against the threat of
“agri-crime”
.
The Committee for
Agriculture and Rural
Development is working to
ensure that the measures
being used to tackle farming
and rural crime are proactive,
fit for purpose and effective.
But building owners must
implement their own security
measures to give themselves
peace of mind.
Farm outbuildings, byres
and barns are not usually
built with the intention of
being burglar-resistant. Their
main purpose is to provide
weather protection for
animals, feed and machinery,
so maintenance is often not
a high priority. Nevertheless,
the persistent targeting of
these buildings by criminals
is compelling farmers to
introduce and adapt security
measures in an attempt
to make theft difficult, the
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objective being to implement
security measures that ensure
an intruder is obliged to
commit maximum time and
effort in the attempt to commit
theft, or be detected in the
process.
In order to protect their
property, agricultural workers
and owners must ensure that
valuable equipment such
as vehicles, machinery and
tools are stored in a secure
building, preferably close to
the farmhouse so it can be
easily observed. This building
must be well maintained and
in a good state of repair with
a high quality security system
in place.
Generally and particularly
at the busiest times such as
lambing season and harvest,
working through the night is
not unusual and farmers will
simply not have the time to
oversee a complicated security
system.
Consequently, the security
systems installed in farms
need to be manageable for
less experienced and busy
workers. Standalone access
control systems can be
fitted to doors that conceal
storage outbuildings used to
house valuable machinery or
livestock, then individual keys
can be issued to authorised
staff. It is possible to combine
different levels of security in
the same master key system,
without needing multiple keys
for users. So each designated
staff member will receive just
one key to open the doors to
which he/she should have
access.
Systems like this enable key
holders to move conveniently,
but only through areas they
need to enter, without the
inconvenience of having to
carry several keys, which could
result in workers wasting time
trying to locate the correct
key.
For commercial farms, with
a large number of employees,
unauthorised copies of keys
and an unknown number of
keys distributed to people,
both within and outside
organisations can be a
problem. A copied or lost key is
an immediate security threat,
and replacing lock cylinders
and keys combined with
administrative work is highly
resource-intensive. These
establishments would benefit
from master key systems with
patented key control, which
restricts duplication if keys are
lost or stolen.
Systems such as ASSA’s
CLIQ™ Remote system help to
minimise administrative work,
allowing the administrator
to grant access or to block
lost or stolen keys remotely.
The keys are equipped with
an electronic identity, which
renders the key useless when
blocked – even though it
may fit mechanically. For
example, if a key holder
were to leave employment
without returning the user
key, employers can simply
deactivate and re-programme
the remaining keys, denying
access to the lost or misplaced
key. The programming method
eradicates the need to change
the cylinder each time a key is
lost or stolen – saving time and
money.
ASSA’s CLIQ™
electromechanical cylinder
range is also scalable to any
size of environment due to
its simple wire-free design.
Building managers can easily
upgrade, as more access
points are required, from ASSA
dp cylinders, to Max CLIQ™,
to ASSA’s CLIQ™ Remote
systems, if farms are extended
to adjust to the businesses’
increased needs. ASSA also
offers padlocks with CLIQ™
functionality to add further
security to farm buildings.
www.assaabloy.co.uk/
securitysolutions
To read more, visit www.locksmithjournal.co.uk