There's a renewed push to set up a dedicated Victoria Police livestock squad

More than 67 per cent of all farmers who responded to a Federation University survey said they were not aware of Agricultural Liaison Officers, dedicated rural crime police members.

Victoria has about 80 part-time AGLOs, who investigate farm crime.

More than 80 per cent of the 882 people who responded to the survey, co-ordinated by Dr Alistair Harkness, were full-time farmers.

 “I’m startled by the number of people who are unaware AGLO’s exist, even though they’ve been around since 2011,” Dr Harkness said.

“There’s some work for police to do, on publicising this.”

He said three-quarters of farmers who had an interaction with an AGLO were satisfied or highly satisfied with the experience.

“People who were aware of AGLOs had a slightly better opinion/thoughts on police,” Dr Harkness said. 

“People who classify crime in their area as serious have a lesser opinion on police overall.

“The people who say crime is not serious have a greater opinion of police.”

He said the most common reasons for reluctance in reporting farm theft were the belief there was not enough evidence for police to proceed, or it was difficult to tell if a crime had occurred.

”In comparing thoughts of police with reasons for not reporting, the reason that ‘a belief police would do nothing about it’ was associated with less satisfaction/opinions of police.”

The survey results also coincide with revelations of the theft of nearly 200 lambs, near Cobram, late last year.

“I attended a conference in Armadale, NSW, at the end of November and spoke to a number of the state’s rural crime investigators,” Dr Harkness said.

“What they are doing is fantastic.”

He said the officers were highly focussed on crime prevention, follow up and acting as a point of contact for people who had been affected.

“Now is the time for Victoria to invest seriously in something like that.

“It’s time for senior police command to bite the bullet and come up with a dedicated rural crime investigation squad, akin to that in NSW and Queensland, so people in regional and rural areas know they are going to get uninterrupted service when it comes to investigations into on-farm crime.

Victorian Farmers Federation livestock group president Leonard Vallance said it was disappointing farmers hadn’t seen any action on rural crime, since last year’s State election.

“I notice that one hoon driver gets about 20 policemen chasing him around, so good, honest criminals stealing sheep are not important,” Mr Vallance said.

He again called for a dedicated stock squad.

“The lack of police resourcing in rural areas is absolute nonsense,” Mr Vallance said.

He said he wasn’t surprised by the latest theft.

“Those sheep have to be going somewhere; someone had to hold them, transport them, retag them, provide the paperwork for them to be rebirthed to be sold to an abattoir or a farm somewhere.

“They were quite well organised, so we need people to report unusual stock movements at night.”

East Gippsland cattle producer Graeme Sinnott, said producers in the east of the state, were very concerned the re-election of the State Government meant no further thought would be given to the creation of a dedicated livestock squad.

“It seems to have been lost there, to be honest – there doesn’t seem to be any intention of changing the status quo,” he said.

He said as AGLO’s were voluntary, “ and things can only get worse, they can’t get better.

“I can’t understand why we can’t do a similar thing to NSW, instead of this daggy, past century arrangement, that just encourages criminality.”

Warrnambool AGLO Detective Sergeant Wayne Ryan was involved in investigations into the theft of about 300 sheep, in western Victoria, in late 2017.

A juvenile and 37-year-old Greenvale resident were convicted of the thefts, in April, last year.

“It was purely financially driven; they were stealing sheep in lots of 20-30, which could easily be fitted into a tandem trailer, with a cage,” Det Sen Const Ryan said.

“They could pull up to a paddock, and – with a good dog – round up those sheep in 20 minutes.”

He said he believed the sheep were being sold to abattoirs, or slaughtered and sold as meat.

“I believe there is a black market going on, where they are selling meat directly into restaurants,” he said.

Tracing such animals, if a mobile slaughterman killed them, was virtually impossible.

“Not too many restaurant owners are going to put their hand up to buying meat, under the table.”

It was also easy to “sprinkle” sheep into larger mobs.

“If you are relatively smart criminal, and you are knocking off ten to 15 at a time from five different farms, those 75 sheep are not going to be reported.”

He said it only became an offence when it was reported to police, as most farmer s had a figure they accepted as natural losses.

“I think sheep producers accept a good per cent are lost to foxes or are lambs which die or wander off,” Det Sgt Ryan said.

“I reckon it would be up to seven per cent that could be stolen, die or wander into the next door neighbours.”

Reports of suspicious behaviour were always taken seriously.

“That's when we get a bit more of the antenna going up,” he said.

Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of Victoria president Graham Howell said it was highly unlikely his members would have been involved in the Cobram theft.

But he said stock transporters should be vigilant, as they could inadvertently be “tangled up” in such incidents.

“When they hear of theft like that, they should check records, and if they think something is not quite right, contact authorities,” Mr Howell said.

“We cart for different people we don’t know all the time, so members just have to be vigilant.”

He said Victoria’s rural crime squad was nowhere near as effective as that in NSW.

“I know there are Victorian police officers in the department trying to get a stock squad up, but they can’t get the resources,” Mr Howell said.

“They are trying to make a difference.”

Police minister Lisa Neville said Victoria Police was currently undertaking a review of its approach to farm crime, to ensure the state had the best model to identify and disrupt such offending. 

The Victoria Police State Intelligence Unit was currently reviewing its approach to farm crime.

The review was evaluating the current operations of AGLOs and assessing whether they were continuing to function as they were intended. 

“Victoria Police has officers who specialise in farm crime and agricultural issues located across Victoria, and I want to reassure victims that they have the tools and resources needed to keep rural and regional communities safe,” Ms Neville said. 

“The government has funded the biggest increase in police numbers in Victoria Police’s history with 3135 new officers rolling out which will further enhance the ability of police to respond to any form of crime including farm crime.” 

Ms Neville said a significant number of the new officers would be allocated to regional and rural communities.

An additional nine police were being deployed to the Wangaratta division, which included Cobram, and they would join 27 new police custody officers, which had freed up thousands of frontline policing hours. 

Victoria Police also had a dedicated Livestock and Farm Crime Specialists Group, established in 2011.