Poaching & rustling activity is being conducted across all regions at alarming levels.

From one to two animals for ‘mom & pop’ farmers all the way up to 1200 sheep at one central North Island farm.

 

The cost and the roll on costs to the economy are huge.

 

Security measures to combat the poaching has been the responsibility of the landowners / farmers to manage themselves. This is in part due to the inaccessibility of some of the more remote rural areas and the task force needed to collate security / surveillance information from different sources.

 

Police and local security combined with local knowledge need to work together to put a stop to it.

Global Risk Consultant Chris Kumeroa suggests that poaching and rustling in rural New Zealand is becoming a greater problem. He also suggests that it may be best combated by a combined law enforcement & private security sector initiative to gather and collate intelligence.

 

Gathering intelligence needs to be a combination of local knowledge and reporting partnered with various covert operations. The various sources of data can then be fed into an Artificial Intelligence system in association with Google mapping. These powerful analytical tools can provide an overview of where and why poaching & rustling is occurring across New Zealand.

 

Covert surveillance teams working in a coordinated fashion with the Police, would provide real-time actionable intelligence leading to Police intervention and potential prosecutions.

 

Prosecutions would smash the risk / reward equation of would-be poachers and lead ultimately to the demise of this form of criminal activity.

 

To get all police to take it seriously, farmers need to work together to report crimes and record suspicious behaviour. It shows the extent of the problem. The more cases reported, the more resources police will dedicate to the problem.

 

refer “New Zealand Security Magazine” for full article