Rural criminology was in focus this week as UNE hosted police and command staff from the NSW and QLD police forces, to continue an important and unique collaboration helping create safer rural communities.
UNE’s Centre for Rural Criminology has worked closely with police since the Centre’s establishment in 2019, enabling important initiatives, such as NSW’s largest Farm Crime Survey in 2020 and the trial of a new generation animal ear tag and its capacity to prevent stock theft.
Dr Kyle Mulrooney, co-director of the Centre for Rural Criminology, said the visit, the latest of many in recent years, was yet another vote of confidence in the Centre and its capacity for world-class research.
“The Centre has had a long and fruitful relationship with the NSW Police, and the Rural Crime Prevention Team in particular, and has been working through 2022 to collaborate and grow our relationship with the Queensland Police Force. This visit by senior police leadership from both forces is a strong show of support for these relationships and an acknowledgement of the value of the Centre for Rural Criminology specifically, opening up even more significant opportunities for UNE across research and teaching and learning.”
While onsite on Tuesday, police toured UNE’s SMART Farms and Centre for Agricultural Research and Teaching (CART), before heading to the NOVA centre in town to hear some of the latest research from UNE pertinent to rural crime.
There, they heard about the challenges and importance of fostering trusting relationships between the police and Australia’s increasingly diverse rural populations (Associate Professor Finex Ndhlovu), groundbreaking research developing artificial intelligence capable of identifying cattle by their muzzles and the future of biometric cattle identification, management, and stock-theft prevention (Dr Ai Shojaeipour and Jennifer Reyes from Zware), and the consequences of fear of crime and strategies to reduce this anxiety (Jacques Melberg and Dr Alistair Harkness).
The video recordings of these fantastic presentations will be available soon via the Centre’s YouTube channel.
The day was also an opportunity for participants from the UNE Centre for Rural Criminology, the NSW Police Force and the Queensland Police Force to identify the top issues in rural crime presently and into the future, and discuss some concrete ways in which the Centre for Rural Criminology can best assist, support and collaborate with police to continue to improve the safety, security, health and wellbeing of rural communities.
Detective Chief Inspector Cameron Whiteside, State Rural Crime Coordinator, from the New South Wales Police Force, said the day provided invaluable insights.
“Our excursion throughout UNE provided our team and high-ranking officers a valuable understanding and exposure to this world leading university, their academic leaders and their focus on all things rural.
“The Roundtable and guest lecturers further enhanced the bond between the UNE Centre for Rural Criminology and the Rural Crime Prevention Team. I am not only proud of the relationship, achievements and collaboration that has been formed in such a short time, but more so excited by the road ahead and initiatives discussed by all present. It is clear that the Rural Crime Prevention Team is not alone in the fight against rural crime, instead, we have world leading academics and resources on our team.
“A big thank you to Dr Kyle Mulrooney, CART, NOVA, and the SMART Farm for sharing your time, knowledge and progress with us.”
Image: Dr Kyle Mulrooney presenting at the rural crime forum.