CrimTrac

CrimTrac was a former Agency in the Attorney-General's Department that was merged with the Australian Crime Commission on 1 July 2016 to form the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. Crimtrac had been responsible for developing and maintaining national information-sharing services between state, territory and federal law enforcement agencies. It was established to deliver on the vision of sharing national policing information to achieve local, national and international policing outcomes.

CrimTrac worked in partnership with Australia’s police agencies to provide services that allowed police to easily share information with each other across state and territory borders. CrimTrac’s information-sharing capabilities were specifically designed to equip police with the information needed to make decisions to assist in investigating and preventing crime. CrimTrac ensured that vital information was shared across Australia’s nine police agencies to provide a national view of policing.

Under the Australian Constitution, each state and territory is responsible for maintaining law and order within its borders, with the Australian Federal Police serving the Commonwealth. Criminals have exploited borders to avoid detection, but when police have a national view of policing information, this minimises opportunities for offenders to evade the law by crossing borders.

It is essential to have effective and efficient information sharing systems to support law enforcement and the operational officers who protect our community. Through its services, CrimTrac contributed directly to the effectiveness and efficiency of police and law enforcement agencies in Australia.

CrimTrac was established to modernise the IT systems created by the National Exchange of Policing Information (NEPI) formed in 1990 and to add new systems required by Australian police to meet changing national law enforcement needs. These include biometric identification of persons of interest via fingerprints and DNA, and other policing information. Fifty million dollars was provided by the Federal government following the 1998 election, and procedural and administrative work commenced to create CrimTrac and transition the NEPI systems over. An Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) signed by Federal, State and Territory law enforcement ministers in July 2000 has underpinned the agency's endeavours.

CrimTrac commenced as a small national agency located in the national capital - Canberra, and staffed by Australian Public Servants. Police specialists and contractors assist where necessary. It has required strong cooperation from all police services, particularly on Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Even with the advantage of an IGA, CrimTrac's startup, growth and management in the first five years was challenging as it addressed its NEPI legacy whilst scoping new IT systems to deliver better shared policing information. Those years required sustained effort by the staff of CrimTrac and by its Board of Management, drawn from the IGA parties, at Police Commissioner level. CrimTrac continues to face challenges as a result of Australia's federational style of government, which has produced nine different sets of criminal legislation and nine individual police systems that must communicate to allow the centralisation of policing information. The national DNA database took eight years to become fully functional because of minor differences in Commonwealth, state and territory legislation.

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