Some tips from Sheriff Crone:
Before an incident happens:
1. Get to know your neighbors - watch out for each other. Find someone you can trust and look out for each other.
2. Make yourself crime resistant - locks, lights, and dogs.
3. Are you going to be gone? Don’t make it look that way but also have someone check on your place. Call your sheriff’s office. Do they do vacation house checks?
4. Neighborhood watch/ Ranch watch
5. Talk to your local sheriff’s office about crime prevention.
During An Incident:
1. Does a vehicle or person or a situation look out of place? Does your gut tell you something isn’t right? Trust your instincts!
2. Call 911 or at least your local sheriff’s office non-emergency phone number (program it in your cell phone). Call NOW, not when you get home. Stay on the phone if you can.
3. Be a good witness! Description of the location, vehicle(s) and persons. If they move, call back or provide us with a direction of travel.
Confronting Someone:
1. Confrontation is NOT advised; that’s what YOU pay US for!
2. If a person or vehicle leaves the scene, AND YOU CAN DO IT SAFELY FROM A DISTANCE, continue to provide a direction of travel.
3. IF you confront - have someone else call first. Get the calvary coming! Make sure we know who YOU are!
4. If you take a gun - make sure we know who YOU are!
5. If law enforcement confronts, YOU, do EXACTLY what you are told to do - we can argue who the good guys are later.
After the Incident
1. Prosecute if there has been a crime committed. It is a crime to trespass. It is a more serious crime to trespass on agricultural property!
2. If the word gets out you call the cops and prosecute, the word will get out you are not someone to mess with.
Employees
1. Consider doing a Colorado Bureau of Investigations check on EVERYONE (https://www.cbirecordscheck.com/CBI_New /CBI_newIndex.asp)
Pros - Gives you a “heads up” about potential problems (drugs, burglars).
Cons - Costs you a few dollars ($6.85 for each name). Only checks Colorado; no other states - and no juvenile or warrant records.
2. Take a good facial photograph when you hire them - attach it to their personnel file. Buy an inkpad and “roll” a fingerprint on their application.
3. Write down a description of the vehicle they are driving - make/color/license plate. Better yet, snap a picture with your phone.