The Riverina’s residents and landholders are encouraged to attend an upcoming forum to discuss new police strategies in tackling rural crime.
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The Riverina Police Rural Crime Forum at 5pm–7pm on September 10 in Temora will be hosted by Riverina Police District’s Superintendent Bob Noble and rural crime–investigation officers.
Superintendent Noble said the forum was for attendees to gain insights into the police’s expanded rural crime capacity.
“We’ve recruited a number of extra rural crime investigators,” he said.
“We’re enhancing their skills as well, so we’re excited about those developments and we want to let the public know.
Superintendent Noble said another important factor was for police to listen to concerns.
“Importantly, we want to listen to their concerns as well,” he said.
“The rural crime team and I are willing to hang around [after formal proceedings] in an informal setting to listen to what people are thinking in an informal setting.
“We’ve had a couple of forums around the place – they’ve been really well received and well attended and it goes to show that people want to hear what we’re doing.”
Importantly, we want to listen to their concerns as well.
- Superintendent Bob Noble, Riverina Police District
The forum comes at a time in which farmers were already doing it tough with financial stress from the drought.
The latest incident occurred on August 31 where about 100 lambs were stolen from a property on Coffin Rock Lane, Marrar, about 30km north of Junee.
Superintendent Noble said rural crime compounded the drought crisis and encouraged residents to report more.
“We think sometimes people are reluctant to report it to police because they think the police can’t do anything,” he said.
“But we can do something, we will do something – we now have a few more resources and better trained police to do that.”
He said that the rural industry by its nature was hard to regulate “so people will take advantage of that”.
“As economic prosperity drops off, we tend to see theft and other crimes increase,” Superintendent Noble said.
“But ultimately, it’s still crime – there are still offenders, still victims...there is still evidence, so we still investigate it like any other crime.”
Temora mayor Rick Firman and Member for Cootamundra Stephanie Cooke will also be in attendance.
For more information and queries, residents may email Superintendent Noble: nobl2dav@police.nsw.gov.au.
- More about the RPD Rural Crime Forum on Facebook.
In addition to the RPD-led forum, NSW Farmers and NSW Police will also hold ‘Tackling Rural Crime: Security Assessment Workshops’ across the state.
NSW Police Force Rural Crime Prevention Team will be attending 26 workshops across regional NSW between September and October from 6pm–8pm for a rural crime get-together exclusively for farmers and primary producers.
Police will speak about the steps farmers can take to detect and prevent crime, new crime fighting technologies, how to report crime to police; and, what to do if a crime occurs.
Workshop sessions
- Henty Field Day: NSW Farmers Shed at 11am–12.30pm on September 18.
- Narrendera: Ex-Servicemen’s Club (41 Bolton Strreet) on September 19.
- Deniliquin: RSL Club (72 End Street) on September 20
To RSVP: visit NSW Farmers.