Crime Stoppers, NSW Police launch new campaign to encourage communities to ramp-up rural crime reporting

Crime Stoppers and the Police Force's Rural Crime Prevention Team are calling on communities to ramp-up rural crime reporting with the aim of solving and preventing further crime.

The State Rural Crime Coordinator of the NSWPF Rural Crime Prevention Team, Detective Chief Inspector Cameron Whiteside said under reporting of rural crime continues to be a major problem in helping police prevent and solve crime.

He said crime in rural NSW continues to remain high with 81 per cent of farmers experiencing crimes such as stock and fuel theft, trespassing and illegal hunting.

This figure was taken from the NSW Farmers Survey from February 2021 by the Centre for Rural Criminology at the University of New England.

"The impact of crimes is exceptionally high, causing financial, physical, and psychological devastation to farmers and has a flow-on effect to the wider Australian economy," Chief Inspector Whiteside said.

"However, the reporting of these crimes continues to be extremely low, and without these reports, crimes cannot be solved, and criminals remain free to continue to cause further havoc for our farmers."

A Rural Crime Advisory Group was established to enable community consultation to develop messaging and initiatives to help increase crime reporting and reduce crime.

Initiated by Crime Stoppers, the advisory group also includes the Rural Crime Prevention Team, Centre for Rural Criminology UNE, NSW Farmers Association, Australian Livestock and Property Agents Association, Livestock and Transporters Association, Livestock, Bulk and Rural Carriers Association, and the County Women's Association.

This collaboration is working to ensure awareness and messaging on rural crime will reach the rural community in many different ways with the aim to increase victim reports to the Police Assistance Line (PAL) and increase reports on criminal activity to Crime Stoppers in order to develop strategies to prevent further crime.

"We need to be better informed; we can't do that without the public reporting crime," Chief Inspector Whiteside said.

"We know there are several barriers to reporting crime - confidence in what can be done; retrieval of stolen items; feeling personally responsible for the theft with costs and difficulty in implementing prevention measures and concern around retaliation as it may be someone they know given their smaller communities.

"A new campaign has been developed to address these barriers and work together for a better outcome for our farmers demonstrating the many different ways the community can report crime in their area including PAL, their local police station, Crime Stoppers and Triple Zero for emergencies.

"The campaign centres on the tagline - Be a pal and report any theft any time to PAL on 131 444 - and - Report suspicious or actual criminal information to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000."

CEO of Crime Stoppers NSW Peter Price said they can't build community resilience and infrastructure if we are in the dark about farm crime.

"Being a victim of crime and reporting the crime matters. If police don't know about the crime they can't do anything. The more information reported, the better equipped the police are to act to prevent or solve a crime," Mr Price said.

Under reporting of rural crime is always a significant barrier for police to target offenders. During 2021 and 2022 police recorded a decrease in the number of stock theft, malicious damage, and trespass offences on rural properties within NSW. However, during this period, police recorded a 96 per cent increase in the number of reported fuel theft incidents.

Rural industries have told police that fuel theft was a major issue, however previously the incidents were not being reported to police.

Farmers are urged to accurately record livestock identification, remove keys from machinery, keep photos of valuable stock to assist with identifying them and install quality locking devices on your gates, sheds, and equipment.

"If you see or hear of anything you believed to be suspicious such as a vehicle in an area it's not meant to be, or stock being moved late at night; we urge you to call Crime Stoppers or your local police," Chief Inspector Whiteside said.

To assist the community further, Crime Stoppers and the Rural Crime Prevention Team have produced a range of free collateral to assist farmers, from pocket notebooks to record what they see to gate signs for property protection with details on where and how to report crime.

The Advisory Group partners, along with the NSW Australian Hoteliers Association will all be helping to spread the message with their networks, ensuring a wider reach to the NSW community.

Fact sheets with prevention measures for farmers can be found on the NSW Crime Stoppers website at https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au/be-safe/.

"Crime in regional areas is not new, however it continues to be a growing area of concern for the whole of NSW, not just the farming community and therefore it needs a whole of community approach," Chief Inspector Whiteside said.