The Rural Crime Prevention Team has received a bronze award in the police-led category of the 2022 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards (ACVPAs).
Now in their 30th year, the ACVPAs recognise best practice in the prevention or reduction of violence and other types of crime in Australia and play a vital role in highlighting effective community-based initiatives to prevent crime and violence, before it actually occurs.
Commenced in 2018 by New South Wales (NSW) Police Force this program aims to improve community confidence, awareness and prevention of rural crime within NSW, by engaging farmers and rural land owners, research technology to enhance farm security and establish strong networks with rural related stakeholders.
"By providing farmers with relevant information and building a strong relationships between farmers and police, we create a joint approach to increasing their resilience to tackle rural crime," Detective Chief Inspector Cameron Whiteside, State Rural Crime Coordinator, Rural Crime Prevention Team, NSW Police Force said.
"The team produced a training program for regional officers to better understand impacts and how to record rural crime, which often goes underreported, and showed a great level of community engagement," said Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) Deputy Director, Dr Rick Brown.
These annual awards recognise the outstanding contributions being made across Australia for crime prevention, including the development and implementation of practical projects to reduce violence and other types of crime in the community.
The awards are a joint initiative of the Australian, state and territory governments and are delivered by the AIC. All projects are assessed each year by the ACVPA Board, which consists of senior law enforcement representatives from each state and territory police service, and is chaired by the AIC Director.
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