In view of the high rate of theft of equipment used in agriculture and fisheries in the first eight months of this year, the government could adopt an imprint method to help prevent theft, an official said on Wednesday.
Joseph Chen (陳永豐), chief secretary of the Government Information Office, said that to reduce the theft rate, Minister of the Interior Liao Liou-yi (廖了以) has suggested a method patterned after the hot stamping of motorcycles.
Chen said the ministry has reached an agreement with the Council of Agriculture (COA) on the matter, and that the imprinting of equipment would be launched in major agricultural counties on a trial basis and later expanded to other areas.
A report on social law and order by National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Wang Cho-chun (王卓鈞) on Wednesday said that in the first eight months of this year, the number of criminal cases dropped from the same period last year, while the rate of crime solving increased. Overall, social law and order was improving, but the theft of equipment used on farms and fisheries was markedly increasing, Wang said.
NPA statistics showed that in the first eight months of the year, the number of reported thefts of farm equipment was 1,096 — an increase of 428 cases, or 64 percent, from the same period last year.
This type of theft is most prevalent in the counties of Changhua, Pingtung, Kaohsiung, Taichung and Yunlin, the NPA said.
Wang said that because of the soaring price of metal worldwide, small electric devices and machinery have become attractive to thieves. Most of the equipment is usually located in isolated areas such as fields, mountainous regions and along the seashore, which makes it easy for thieves to steal, he said.
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