Rural New Zealand offers a great relaxed lifestyle, beautiful surroundings, and it’s often regarded as being much safer than the city.

While reported crime in rural New Zealand is much lower than urban areas, people who are lucky enough to live in the country should still take precautions to minimise their risk of crime. Here are a few tips that can help to keep you and your property safe.

Make sure your property can be located by emergency services

It’s important your property can be located easily if you need urgent help from emergency services – and they can find your property much quicker if you can give them your Rural Address Property Identification (‘RAPID’) number. This number identifies rural properties by the number of metres the entrance of property is from the start of the road or nearest intersection. The RAPID number is displayed at the entrance to a property by reflective numbers and is issued by your local council. If your property hasn’t got a RAPID number, contact your local council to get one issued.

Get to know your neighbours

If you live in a remote area, your neighbours could be the first ones to help or notice something out of the ordinary. If a natural disaster hit and emergency services couldn’t get to you, your neighbours could be the ones to come to the rescue. You don’t need to be best friends, but simply exchanging phone numbers is a great way to establish a rapport - if you’re going away for a few days, ask them to keep an eye on your place. If your place is burgled, they might see something that could help police..

Make sure your home, vehicles and outbuildings are secure

Make sure you keep your doors and windows locked when you’re not at home; ensure that your outbuildings that have valuable equipment stored in them are locked, and never leave your vehicles unlocked. Keep all chemicals, fertilisers and dangerous goods in a locked building.

Protect your livestock

Livestock can be an easy target for thieves. Always ensure your stock yards and loading ramps are locked. Maintain the records of your livestock including sales, purchases, earmarks and ear tags.

Secure fuel tanks

Fuel tanks are frequently targeted by criminals, so it is a good idea to take a few precautions to prevent your fuel being stolen. Ensure your tanks are dipped, secured and locked to prevent tampering and theft.

Firearms

The New Zealand Arms Regulations sets clear requirements for the storage of firearms, including a locked rack, cabinet or strong room. For the safety of your family, always return your firearms to your locked storage facility when you’re not using them.

Record your serial numbers

If you are burgled, it will make things much easier if you have the serial number of your valuables recorded. This includes all the gear in your home, as well as any farm machinery. An easy way to do this is to use the AMI contents locker on Neighbourly, a secure and FREE cloud based store solution for pictures and details of your stuff.

Useful links

The New Zealand Police have developed a great tool that can help you assess how secure your rural property is - check it out.

Neighbourhood Support is a not-for-profit organization that aims to make homes, streets, neighbourhoods and communities a safer and more caring place to live. They have a huge number of existing groups across New Zealand, find out more here. If there isn’t a group in your community, Neighbourhood Support can help you to form a new one.