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Criminal Text Alerts Help Farmers in the UK

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Criminal Text Alerts Help Farmers in the UK

 
April 22, 2014

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By Daniel Brecht,
Contributing Writer


Online Watch Link (OWL) is a unique, Internet-based system that supports, invigorates and administers communitys and groups such as Neighborhood Watch, Business Watch and Farm Watch, enabling members to be part of a network that instantly shares information of incidents. Today, OWL is in use as an interactive tool for the U.K. police and local residents to help prevent and detect criminal acts using text messaging technology, according to Libby Lee from North Wales Police’ Community Safety Team.


Lee added that OWL makes a genuine difference to the community as it provides localized and relevant crime alerts in the event of an emergency. Overall, it is an important Web tool where users can join a watch or sign up (as a member or as a coordinator for their street)Advertisement, Lee said, to circulate information – i.e. to “support one another and be more aware of what is going on in their area.”

But the police and community watch groups aren’t the only ones benefitting from the connectivity of OWL’s text messaging system. According to Farmers Weekly, OWL has turned out to be successful in helping the farming community as well. Farmers receive text alerts on suspicious activities in Gwent, which is a county in southeast Wales. The post tells that farm crime in this Welsh county “has been cut by more than a quarter [25 percent] thanks to a network of text messaging and email alerts. [Local] police said it has contributed to 27 percent fewer crimes there in the last five months.”

Image via Shutterstock

Howard Vicary, a beef and sheep farmer residing in the county, said he is no longer bothered by thieves thanks to the many farmers in Gwent that have registered with OWL. He had previously been a victim of regular thefts of diesel and workshop tools, as well as had three quad bikes stolen in the last five years, the post disclosed. Gwent’s Police and Crime Commissioner Ian Johnston described OWL “as the extra pairs of eyes and ears out there in the farming community” that helps keep criminals away and avoid rural crime. OWL’s success, he said, allows police to work with partners and members of the community to end local crime.

The OWL system for the Gwent community provides the scheme of a modern neighborhood watch initiative. It allows members to join a range of watch schemes, Vicary said, and let them manage themselves online. He is one of 800 farmers in Gwent registered with OWL that says the system works well.

With “over 4,600 Online Watch Links in Gwent, which cover 24,600 homes and businesses”—as noted in a post on neighbourhoodwatch.net—the system, which accepts telephone and e-mail messages, makes it possible for the Gwent online community watch to report Farm Watch crime and have local police capture probable suspects. Thus far, OWL has worked well because residents are quickly informed on local policing matters in the comfort of their own homes.

Farmers in Gwent will find OWL able to make their life easier and simpler for all involved. Those who do not have access to the Internet will definitely miss communicating to OWL users, but do have the option to follow Vicary’s example and install CCTV cameras and use GPS trackers on machinery as a form of added security.




Edited by Alisen Downey
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