Throughout the 2022 calendar year there was a total of just 14 stock theft reports to police across the western plains.

Detective Chief Inspector- State Rural Crime Coordinator Cameron Whiteside spoke to the Western Plains App about recent rural crime trends.

 "Stock theft reported to police is those of sheep and goats, with a total of 98 goats and 1037 sheep being reported stolen in throughout the 2022 calendar year," Mr Whiteside said.

"The reports of missing livestock have been from regions in the Western Plains including Lightning Ridge, Walgett, Narromine, Nyngan, Warren, Baradine, Bourke, Brewarrina, Gulargambone and Cobar."

The 2020 New South Wales Farm Crime Survey found that 80% of NSW farmers had experienced some type of farm crime in their lifetime, and experienced this victimisation repeatedly.

Farmers experience a wide variety of rural crimes including trespassing, plant theft, poaching and livestock theft. Mr Whiteside says rural criminals can use various methods to complete vandalistic acts.

"There are a large variety of methods used to commit rural crimes. These are dependent on the numbers of stock taken and the demographics.

"It can involve an organised approach, use of dogs, multiple offenders, and heavy vehicles, or smaller operations from opportunistic thieves. My experience tells me that stock is stolen from a combination of habituated and uninhabited properties across NSW," Mr Whiteside said.

Some recent high profile cases of rural theft around Narromine and Nyngan in particular suggest that incidents across shires could be linked and pre-planned.

"We find that rural crimes can be both opportunistic and planned. We find that illegal hunting and trespassing provides the opportunity for offenders to "window shop" and come back later, or commit the offences right there and then. These offences can be stealing fuel., equipment, quads, motorcycles and firearms to name a few".

"There are no particular hotspots within the Western Plains region that thieves target to commit rural crimes. Since the floods have receded, there has also not been a spike in reports of rural crime. The stolen stock reports received in the Western Plains region accounts for 5% of the reports taken in 2022 across NSW," he said.

Mr Whiteside says rural crime is significantly underreported to NSW Police.

"The biggest issue we find is the underreporting and delayed reporting," Mr Whiteside said.

"We encourage all farmers to report all rural crime or suspicions immediately. In the first instance, contact your local police or if you have information on rural crimes please contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

"We also encourage farmers to maKe themselves familiar with and refer to the wealth of resources available including crime prevention fact sheets and reports".