Residents of Bogan Shire have been left feeling unsafe of late as a spate of thefts have taken place in the town, forcing residents to review safety measures and install security cameras.

Rural crime costs millions of dollars every year. Theft of livestock, produce and equipment, illegal shooting, trespassing and other crimes affect people's livelihood and well-being.

“Obviously the current wave of theft in our community is a major concern,” said Bogan Shire Mayor Glen Neill.

“All these offenders have absolutely no respect for anyone in our community and don’t deserve to be part of it."

“We ask if anyone has any information on these people please come forward and talk to police. If we don’t continue to support the police to catch these offender’s this type of behaviour will continue.”

“We all hope that the judicial system will issue appropriate punishment to them especially those who are repeat offenders. This needs to change urgently to support police who make arrests and then have to see the same people released on bail or with minimal jail time which is obviously no deterrent to them,” said Mayor Neill.

Bogan Shire Mayor Glen Neill photo courtesy Nyngan Observer.

With not only break and enters occurring within the town, the small communities around the shire have also been hit hard with theft of utes, four wheelers, tools, stock and farm equipment.

Sergeant Tony Wood of Nyngan Police took to Facebook with an update on the crime in the town, acknowledging the community’s frustration and citing arrests that have taken place over the course of the last two months, assuring residents the police were working hard to combat the crime.

“There are Police operations underway that I cannot comment on just yet as they are ongoing,” said Sergeant Wood. “I’m hoping that there will be some more announcements in the next week or so.”

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“In the meantime, we have numerous people facing court in the coming months which should be sufficient to get them significant prison time. Our meth lab suspects from last June have spent the last seven months in prison awaiting trial.”

“Our legal system moves slowly but it is moving. We have had crime spikes before – we’ve targeted the right people and got things back to normal. I have confidence that we will get our town back in order before to long,” he said.

Police work hard to target criminals in Nyngan.

After being questioned by a local resident about the seeming lack of night-time police, Sergeant Wood offered the following explanations.

“Police are out all night and offenders are being caught. Not every time, but it’s been happening.

"There are challenges we face – thieves head out and if they see another car or headlights behind them, they either won’t commit crimes, or they’ll drive at high-speed resulting in a pursuit which poses an enormous risk to the public – we have had a few of those over the last month.”

“If they get out to a property and steal a heap of stuff, we can sit off their home/s and wait for them to get back, but they learn from that and hide the stolen goods in the bush to collect later. We’ve been recovering a lot of stolen property from bushland lately,” he said.

Sergeant Tony Wood Nyngan Police photo courtesy Nyngan Observer

Sergeant Wood stressed that although it is important to have police out at night, they also need to be around in the day for those who need to report any crimes that take place or to assist police with enquiries to apprehend the suspects.

“We often have people discover the crime in the morning when they wake up and call police. We know it can be upsetting for people to be the victims of crime only to have no Police turn up because they’ve been out all night and/or taking prisoners to Dubbo.”

“Local Police like to be able to provide an immediate response whether it is day or night. We’ve had numerous occasions where we’ve arrested people early and mid-morning with stolen property and stolen utes so it’s not just night-time we need to be out.”

“It’s always a juggling act. Ideally, we’d have Police in Hermidale, Girilambone, Coolabah, the Marra, and south east towards Dandaloo and Buddabadah. – as well as covering Nyngan where local businesses get hit – but we would need hundreds of cops 24/7 which we simply don’t have.”

What appears to be a solution agreed upon by all in the shire is the need for the community to work as a whole and if they see anything suspicious or have information that can be used to solve crime to call the Police and report it.

“What has been working is vigilant locals who work with Police to provide good information on where and when to target our efforts. We’ve had great success with forensic evidence. DNA and fingerprints. Also, CCTV keeps getting better with night vision and high definition. We conduct search warrants at certain locations which has been successful in finding stolen property which results in arrests.”

Residents thanked Sergeant Wood for the information to their queries and he assured them the Police were working hard to restore a sense of safety to the town.

If you have anything to Report please call Nyngan Police on 0268311399 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000