Investigative Services Tips
Tips to Prevent Agriculture Crimes
- Keep pastures secure, lock your gates.
- Control access to keys or combinations to your locks on gates.
- Keep saddle compartments on trailers and tack rooms locked.
- Brand, ear tag or microchip cattle and horses. Make sure your brand is recorded with the Oklahoma Cattleman’s Association. Keep permanent records of all forms of ID.
- Photographs of animals showing distinctive markings are beneficial during recovery.
- Mark all saddles, tack, and equipment with registered brand or driver’s license number or social security number.
- Video horses and tack, maintain a complete and accurate description on file. Establish and organized, easy to find proof of ownership file to aid in recovering property.
- Count cattle on a regular basis, the more delay in learning cattle are missing decreases the chance of recovery.
- Don’t build pens close to a roadway.
- Don’t feed in your pens.
- Don’t establish a routine when feeding. Vary the times you feed.
- Watch out for your neighbors, take down tag numbers of suspicious vehicles, report suspicious activities to law enforcement or neighbors.
- Establish rural neighborhood watch programs.
- Park trailers and equipment where they are out of view from the roadway.
- Don’t leave keys in tractors or other equipment.
- Report anyone starting fires.