Victoria’s rural crime strategy needs an overhaul

VICTORIA’S rural crime strategy needs an overhaul, argues ALISTAIR HARKNESS.

crime pic generic

ANY notion that there exists a crime-free “rural idyll” is fanciful.

A significant proportion of farms experience crime, and farm victimisation can affect individuals as well as the wider agricultural industry both financially and socially.

Regardless of location, a strong and well-resourced policing presence provides confidence to law-abiding citizens and a deterrence to those who are not.

Alistair Harkness.

Sixty-four per cent of respondents to our recent survey of Victorian farmers ­believe police in their local area are dealing with the things that matter to people in this community.

Almost half of respondents, though, think their local police are not well-resourced. And of both interest and concern is that farmers who have had a recent encounter with police were less satisfied with the overall standard of policing in their area.

This indicates there is work required to strengthen the relationship between police and the policed.

Since 2011, Victoria Police has had a team of Agricultural Liaison Officers — officers with agricultural knowledge working in rural communities — investigating farm crimes and performing an educative role in farming communities around crime prevention.

Despite their hard work and commitment, there is a lack of awareness throughout the Victorian farming sector of their existence — ­almost two-thirds of farmers surveyed were unaware of the AGLO program.

SHEEP DUFFING VICTIM WANTS STOCK SQUAD BACK

Our AGLOs, too, represent a very thin blue line.

They must also perform a wide array of other policing and detective duties in addition to a focus on thefts from farms.

This needs redress — many police forces internationally have dedicated rural crime teams, but we need to look no further than our northern neighbours in NSW, who last year established a stand-alone squad of Rural Crime Investigators.

These police members are located strategically around their state, providing full-time attention to farm thefts assisted by dedicated intelligence analysts.

Training is also provided for other rural-based police to develop general agricultural knowledge and awareness of specific factors associated with crime on farms, which assists enormously in improving police-farmer relations.

We know from other jurisdictions that a well-resourced dedicated rural crime team — developing partnerships, engaging in community policing practices and fully investigating farm crime without distraction — will lead to an uptake in reporting rates, improvements in satisfaction with local police, and a significant deterrent to offenders.

Victoria needs to follow suit.

• Dr Alistair Harkness is a senior lecturer of criminal justice at Federation University

EXCLUSIVE: FARM CRIME FLOURISHING IN VICTORIA