No farm crime, however small, should not be reported.
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That is the message from Horsham Farm Crime Liason Officer Simon Grant, who is working with the Wimmera's farming communities on farm crime prevention and education.
Sgt Grant, a farmer himself, leads the Wimmera Proactive Policing Unit alongside his farm crime duties.
Originally from a property near Ballarat, Sgt Grant has worked for Victorian police since 2000, joining when he was 20-years-old.
Throughout his career, Sgt Grant has worked in roles at the uniform division, Highway Patrol and prosecutions, until he eventually put his name forward for Victoria police's Agricultural Liason Officer program.
"When I found out about that I was pretty keen to get involved and started doing some more agricultural focused proactive work, trying to spread the message of reporting crime and target hardening," he said.
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"Trying to make it harder for farmers to become a victim of farm crime."
As part of the Wimmera Proactive Policing Unit, Sgt Grant has worked with schools and community groups on outreach programs, as well as trying to steer young offenders away from the criminal justice system.
In addition, Sgt Grant took on Wimmera's farm crime liaison officer portfolio, which involves traveling to events such as the Wimmera Machinery Field Days to educate farmers on preventative measures they can take to keep their farm safe.
"There is livestock theft, but also it goes as far as to say any crime that is committed in a regional or rural environment is farm crime," he said.
"It might be theft of diesel from a tractor or from a bowser on the farm. It might be the theft of a chainsaw or quadbike from an unlocked farm shed.
"It also goes to illegal spotlighting on someone's farm. We have seen people who have cut padlocks to go and spotlight on a property, they drive away with the gate still open and stock go wandering and missing."
Sgt Grant's career has taken him across the state. In 2017, he completed the Queensland Stock Squad training course and in 2018 contributed to Victoria police's strategic intel assessment into their response to farm crime.
Sgt Grant said the Wimmera Proactive Policing Unit looked to build trust with the Wimmera's farming community.
He said a large reason why farm crimes were underreported was due to a lack of communications between the police and farmers.
"For a long time, I think farmers haven't had faith in police. We are trying to change that mindset and really trying to encourage people to report farm crime.
"It is all about building relationships, that is what it comes down to. Anyone can just roll into someone's house and take a report of theft, but you have got to show that you are genuinely interested in helping out the victim, that you know what they are talking, you know what they are going through, and that you want to make a difference.
"If you can't show that you are genuine, and you can't show that you know what you are talking about then the farmer will see right through that and they will shut down."
Through going to agricultural events and sharing his farming background, Sgt Grant hoped to build trust with the region's farming community, working together to face the underreported issue of farm crime.
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"I have heard reports of a farmer going into a busier police station to report a stock theft, and they have said 'I have got 15 ewes missing', and the question from the other side of the counter is 'what is a ewe?'," he said.
"Then the farmer throws their hands up, walks out the door and we lose the opportunity to investigate that incident just because they don't have that confidence in us to even understand what they are talking about.
"I would love to see in the future that we have some kind of dedicated response to farm crime."
As part of his proactive policing role, Sgt Grant will attend the Rural Roadshow in Horsham on October 26.
He said he looked to inform farmers of simple ways to make themselves a less likely target for potential criminals.
"We know criminals will take the path of least resistance. There is a gate that is locked next to a gate that is unlocked, they will go through the unlocked one because it is quick and reduces their chance of being caught," he said.
"If you have got a wifi signal or you have got phone reception, you can have security cameras that will beam an image to your phone in real-time so that you will know about it."
He also encouraged farmers to come forward and report any crime, regardless of how small.
"I want to say that nothing is too small to report to us. Even if you are unsure if a crime has been committed. We will determine that we will look into it further," he said.
"You might think that you are missing 10 or 15 sheep and put that down to bad counting or not keeping the records, but we want to know about those instances. Because that could be a small trailer load that has disappeared.
"We need to build a bigger intelligence picture and understand how big of an issue this is. For us to get better and what we do and to get better resources it will take understanding how big this problem really is to achieve that.
"Victoria police aren't going to throw resources at a problem that they can't quantify."
Sgt Grant will be talking to the public out the front of the White Hart Hotel between 10am and 2pm on Tuesday, October 27, as part of the farm crime rural roadshow.
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