Transcript
Inspector Paul Hargreaves, Eastern Farm Crime Coordination Unit: The Farm Crime unit has been around since 2019 and we work across the five pillars of farm crime. So you've got, livestock theft, theft other, which is machinery and fuel and chainsaws etc.
You’ve got biosecurity, illegal hunting and shooting, and of course activism which is raising its head a fair bit of late.
For us it's about engaging with the key stakeholders and what can we learn from them. How can we understand what the risks are? How do we share those risks? And then how do we push that out to our operational arm, and our operational arm is our Farm Crime Liaison Officers.
First Constable Laura Taylor, Farm Crime Liaison Officer: The Farm Crime Liaison Officers have special knowledge in relation to investigating farm crime and farm related issues. That basically means that we're there to service the rural community with anything related to crime, and also to support fellow members of the police force who might not have any idea about rural issues.
We can understand other avenues of investigation. We also as a Farm Crime Liaison Officer, we'll proactively patrol and take farm crime reports.
Our role is really important to support farmers and educate them in relation to farm related offences. A lot of it gets under-reported or it doesn't get reported at all.
Inspector Paul Hargreaves, Eastern Farm Crime Coordination Unit: Just a simple thing like locking your gates, taking your keys out of your tractors, securing that firearm safe, putting signs on your gate, installing simple CCTV. There's a plethora of things that the farmer can do, and we know just from years of dealing with crime that if it looks difficult the crooks will often move on to somewhere else, so let's make it difficult for them. We're aware of all these kinds of things and what we're trying to do is work with the farmer to better understand what the issues are and how we can produce a better result for them. We just need to work together.
First Constable Laura Taylor, Farm Crime Liaison Officer: I'm really passionate about, our farming community and the rural lifestyle. So to me being able to be a Farm Crime Liaison Officer and support our rural community, in a Victoria Police role is so special to me.
Farm and rural safety
Find out more about how to keep your farm secure, and resources to assist you, on our Farm and rural safety page.
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