Episode 5

Breakthrough Episode 5: Saddle up and meet the men and women of the fabled Queensland Police Service Rural and Stock Crime Squad in the latest episode 'View From the Saddle'.

This legendary unit was formed in 1959 as the Queensland Stock Investigation Squad, pivoting through the years to the Stock and Rural Crime Investigation Squad then to the Major Organised Crime Squad Rural. Whatever its name, the squad’s core function has remained steady through the decades from when it was run out of the Criminal Investigation Branch in Brisbane with just a Detective Sergeant and three plainclothes officers on board. Officers with some rural experience and who knew their way around a horse were preferred.

Today the Rural and Stock Crime Squad has teams across Queensland, including in Roma, Charleville, Longreach, Charters Towers and Mareeba. Two Detective Senior Sergeants – based respectively in Toowoomba and Rockhampton - coordinate the Southern and Northern regions. The work of the squad, too, has gone way beyond just nabbing cattle duffers and sheep thieves. Not only does its extensive remit include drug offences, fraud, firearms theft, and wildlife and horse racing offences, but its work may cross state and international borders.

Listen to Breakthrough below or wherever you get your podcasts.

Share what you know, not who you are. Report crime information anonymously via Crime Stoppers. Call 1800 333 000 or report online at www.crimestoppersqld.com.au.