- Published:
- Wednesday 24 December 2025 at 9:00 am
| Jordan Whiskin and Acting Sergeant Omar Mulabegovic are part of a 2600-strong community of car enthusiast employees helping to solve crimes. |
When a Cobram detective started looking into a local burglary earlier this year, he called on the expertise of a pool of colleagues that stretched a lot wider than just his office.
Equipped with a short CCTV clip of a dark-coloured SUV believed to be involved, Detective Senior Constable Lachlan Fraser, from Cobram Crime Investigation Unit (CIU), put the call out right across Victoria Police.
He shared the footage on an internal police social media platform to a 2600-strong community of car enthusiast employees from all corners of the state in the hopes of identifying the offending/suspect vehicle.
Less than 20 minutes later, and 250km away from Cobram at the Forensic Services Department, Acting Sergeant Omar Mulabegovic happened upon the post and nominated the vehicle as a Chery Omoda 5.
With no forensic evidence left at the scene and the two offenders’ faces not visible in the footage, A/Sgt Mulabegovic’s correct nomination was critical in identifying the offenders.
Following the lead of the vehicle, investigators arrested and charged two offenders with burglary and theft.
In November, Latrobe CIU Senior Constable Declan Taylor took to the same online platform and posted a CCTV still image of a car involved in recent burglary in central Gippsland.
The image was captured at night and the vehicle was blurry, so Sen Const Taylor needed additional eyes to help identify the car.
Just two minutes later and about 150km away at the Victoria Police Centre in Docklands, Victorian Public Service employee Jordan Whiskin spotted the post and left a comment, suggesting the vehicle was a Holden Captiva from around 2012.
Mr Whiskin’s nomination led to significant avenues of enquiry for investigators, and while that investigation is ongoing, the lead has allowed detectives to narrow down a list of persons of interest.
Prior experience pays dividends
You would be forgiven for assuming that identifying vehicles is a core part of A/Sgt Mulabegovic and Mr Whiskin’s day jobs, but this isn’t the case.
Their regular contributions of insights to aid investigators across the state are completely voluntary.
Mr Whiskin’s role in Victoria Police’s payroll operations team keeps him extremely busy, but a prior nine-year career as a motorcycle mechanic and a lifelong interest in cars mean his vehicle identification skills are a resource benefiting countless investigations.
“My main interest is motorbikes but I love anything with a motor in it – two wheels or four wheels, I’m all over it,” Mr Whiskin said.
“Now working in payroll as my day job, it’s great to take five minutes out of my day where I can visit the platform and help out a detective with an investigation.
“I see it as a puzzle, where I look for clues like the headlight, the body shape, the rims, all those parts that give a good indication of exactly the kind of car I’m looking at.”
| Key features like wheel arches and taillights can help reveal the identity of a vehicle. |
A/Sgt Mulabegovic’s interest in cars started at a young age from playing racing games on his PlayStation, but evolved during adulthood when he had the means to buy his own vehicles.
“After I got my driver’s licence and started to buy some interesting cars, that interest has just stuck with me,” he said.
A/Sgt Mulabegovic is no stranger to having keen eyes in his role in the Criminal Identification Unit, where he supports investigators to put offenders’ faces to names.
“In some ways I take a similar approach to identifying cars, because I’ll break down a photo or video into components to try and get an ID,” he said.
“I’ll see some taillights and think, ‘They look really familiar, like they belong to a Ford, but I don’t know what kind of Ford’.
“I’ll then dig deeper into the other parts of the image to find characteristics that help narrow down my options.”
Modern platform brings greater collaboration
For Vehicle Crime Squad (VCS) officer-in-charge Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Dave Shannon, the online platform is a way to reach the many members and employees across Victoria Police who were previously an untapped resource in investigations.
“VCS members have long provided a helping hand to detectives across the state to identify vehicles in their investigations,” Det A/Sen Sgt Shannon said.
“Despite the expertise of the members in our unit, we knew we weren’t the only ones in an organisation of this size who could assist investigators in this way.”
The VCS ran a successful email-based trial in 2019 where it managed requests for assistance from investigators state-wide in identifying vehicles from CCTV footage.
Assistance was received from more than 200 participants during the project.
“The introduction of this online platform nearly five years ago allowed us to modernise that trial and tap into the expertise of the wider organisation in a more collaborative and efficient way,” Det A/Sen Sgt Shannon said.
“Seeing so many vehicles identified so quickly and from so many different parts of Victoria Police has been fantastic.”
Editorial Cassandra Stanghi
Photography Danielle Ford
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