| The Animal
Agriculture Alliance recommends the following very
basic steps to help maintain security at your
facility. These recommendations are not a guarantee of
safety, nor are they comprehensive to all farm, ranch
or company operations, but they can give a good start
to developing an overall security plan to help ensure
the safety of your family, your employees and your
animals. When in doubt, consult an attorney – this
is still America and folks have civil rights that must
be protected.
o
Talk seriously with your local
police/fire/emergency departments now. Get to
know the folks whose job it is to protect you and
yours. Let them know you’re prioritizing your
facility security, let them know about legitimate
reports of eco or animal rights criminal activity. It
is imperative you know whom to call if necessary.
Know response times. Know how many officers are
on duty during early morning hours, prime time for
“hits” on rural facilities.
o
Establish a contact and good working
relationship with the appropriate public authorities,
including public utilities, local and state law
enforcement, etc. Make sure they have copies of
maps of your facilities indicating service shut-off
locations, security areas, and any area of sensitivity
or vulnerability.
o
Evaluate every request for information
about your operation, even the most routine.
Don’t fall prey to false praise; never agree to a
suspicious request until you have verified the
validity of the request. Whenever possible,
require requests for sensitive information/tours be in
writing. Never provide information over the
phone (it can be misinterpreted or misconstrued).
Reply in writing. Obtain as much information as
possible, e.g. name, phone number, address, reason for
request, what will the person be doing with the
information who else may have been contacted, etc.
Ask if you may receive a copy of the final report once
it is completed. If the person hesitates to cooperate
with any of these requests, refuse them access to your
operation or information about your operation.
o
Ask for references. Make a call to
verify the person requesting any sensitive information
is who he/she says he/she is, especially those
claiming to be reporters.
o
Ensure access to the facility is
controlled. Establish check-in procedures for
visitors. Place appropriate signs noting such
procedures and require visitors to sign in and out
o
upon entering and leaving facility. Use
visitor identification badges. Even the stick-on
kind is better than nothing. This protects your
visitor as well as your operation.
o
Escort visitors (especially reporters,
photographers/videographers) at all times through
facility. Employees should be instructed to
report all unescorted visitors to the appropriate
management and security personnel immediately.
o
Maintain basic security: Lock office
doors and file cabinets. Have firewalls installed on
your computer systems. Maintain separate business and
personal computers. Keep all animal health
products under lock and key. Use security
lighting/alarms. Maintain fencing and gates.
Post signs indicating restricted areas and no
trespassing, etc.
o
Thoroughly screen all job applicants.
Take the time to check all references. If
you have any questions, ask for further references.
Double-check anyone who shows a university or college
ID. Any hesitation by the prospective employee
takes them off your hire list.
o
Watch for unusual behavior by new
employees or workers who have no reason to be in the
facility past their 9-5 shift. Pay attention to
workers who stay unusually late, arrive unusually
early, access files/information/other areas of the
facility outside of their department/responsibility,
removing documents from site, ask questions on
sensitive subjects, possess cameras or videocams
on-site. Watch for workers who are standoffish,
who don’t mix with other employees. Note the
mode of dress, e.g. absence of leather or other animal
products.
o
Tell all workers at hiring that
unannounced locker checks, etc. are part of your
routine security maintenance operation. Tell all
employees at hiring that your operation will report
and/or prosecute any employee who breaks the law.
o
Inform employees in vulnerable areas
that surveillance or infiltration is a possibility.
Any suspicious activity should be reported to
supervisors or the appropriate security person
immediately.
o
Report all suspicious and/or illegal
incidents to local police.
o
Watch for warning sign that you may be a
target. General patterns include an increase in
requests for animal specific information or on-farm
tours; calls/letters questioning or criticizing your
business or particular practices; harassing
calls/letters – perhaps not to your operation but
one near you; increase in media attention to issues
relating to the cattle industry, and special interest
group campaigns locally, unusual interest in gaining
employment.
o
Develop a Company Statement
relative to care, treatment, nutrition, etc. for your
animals. The Alliance can help you with this, as
well as with how to talk with the public and the media
about your operations “best practices.”
o
In all cases, designate a single
spokesperson to handle all calls, including
media, about animal care, animal rights or any company
policy relative to animals. Also, conduct tests
of your security system and if necessary, mock drills
on your response program, including media statements,
etc.
o
Develop a crisis communication/action
plan. Establish policies and procedures for
handling disruptive, illegal situations as well as for
handling adverse publicity that might result from the
misuse of information. Your priority is to keep
you and your employees safe. Take care of people, then
move on to ways to protect bricks and mortar.
Source: Beef Magazine by
Steve Kopperud and Kay
Johnson |
