As part of my job I work with SPARC (Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime) which is a multi-agency body led by Police Scotland. Through this during the last 6-7 years, thefts of expensive machinery & equipment (think £280k or more for a tractor, and even £15k for a farm GPS) have reduced by almost 40% in volume & value. There are significant SOCG family connections across Northumberland, Scottish Borders and Aberdeenshire, so Northumberland Police are also working with SPARC and are led by Ch.Sup. Andy Huddleston (check him out when he was competing against Dougie Lampkin!)...@NeilW you may be aware? Fortunately, SPARC is well recognised by very senior people in Police Scotland, but I do see and hear of cut backs across other police departments, including roads & traffic, which is bad news for us all north of the border.
FYI, I was recently told that Honda & Stihl are now the only mainstream farm equipment manufacturers who are refusing to include DNA & trackers with their machinery. They confessed this is because if more kit was returned to their owners, it would 'severely damage their sales business model' as victims have to purchase replacements.