NSW Police Rural Crime Prevention Team is working with farmers to add protective measures on land to prevent rural theft

NSW Police have revealed their top tips on how to prevent rural crime and why reporting matters. Here are their tips.

Farmers in rural communities across the state are being urged to “think like a criminal” when protecting their homes from would-be theives, while being urged to add surveillance measures to prevent rural theft.

Detective chief inspector Cameron Whiteside told The Dubbo News “rural crime is grossly unreported” with 50 per cent of crimes not being reported to police.

“The key is to report all crimes so that we can have an informed approach to policing but also so we know where we can channel our resources,” Insp Whiteside said.

“It’s hard enough working on the land at the best of times without also having to deal with trespassing, illegal hunting, livestock theft equipment and property theft, and other crimes.

“We say report, report, report, because if we don’t hear about it, we don’t know.”

NSW Police state rural crime coordinator Detective Inspector Cameron Whiteside.

While not trying to inject fear into farmers, Whiteside advised farmers to add preventive measures to reduce the risk of being a target instead of waiting until the crime has occurred.

He said by adding surveillance cameras, lighting, warning signs and locking up equipment while regularly counting stock, fuel, checking fences and gates, crops and other items are initial ways to prevent crime.

Stolen sheep Picture: NSW Rural Crime Prevention Team

“Think like a criminal or the rural crime offender and ask yourself, ‘What would I steal, how would I go about it, and what time of day would I do it?’ And that will give you an idea of exactly where you need to tighten things up,” he said.

“The reality is, you need to make it a little harder than it is … it’s not going away anytime soon [rural crime] but we’d rather prevent it than try to solve it.

NSW Rural Crime Prevention Team.

“We have to change our way from the past in that there’s a lot of trust in farmers, and it’s sad that we have to lock things up, but the reality is, if we don’t make the risk a lot higher than you’re an easy target for criminals.

“I’m not saying that we can prevent 100 per cent of the rural crimes but we can make it a lot harder and push those offenders out of the district – and it’s working – a big part of that is the increased reporting.

Around 81 per cent of farmers reported being a victim of rural crime, while 88 per cent of those have been victims two or more times, according to the NSW Farm Crime Survey 2020.