History
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 onBiometrics
CrimTrac's NCIDD and NAFIS systems provideNational Automated Fingerprint Identification System
The National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) is a fingerprint and palm print database and matching system, which is available to Australian police and immigration authorities. The NAFIS assists Australian police to solve crime by quickly and reliably establishing a person's identity from fingerprint and palm impressions. The NAFIS enables near ‘real time’ upload of prints from crime scenes which makes it possible for police to identify a suspect in minutes. The NAFIS contains finger and palm print images collected from individuals by Australian police and immigration authorities. It also contains unsolved fingerprint and palm print crime scene images, which Australian police can search against. The NAFIS contains fingerprint or palm print records for more than 3.3 million people, with a total of 5.6 million sets of prints. In the 2011-12 financial year users conducted 428,831 searches on prints from individuals. During this period, there was 367,751 searches conducted on finger and palm prints from latent fingerprints, which are collected at crime scenes.National Criminal Investigation DNA Database
The National Criminal Investigation DNA Database (NCIDD) provides Australian police with the ability to match DNA profiles across state and territory borders. The NCIDD contains DNA profiles from samples collected by Australian police. These profiles are derived from samples collected at crime scenes, or from convicted offenders, suspects, items belonging to missing persons and unknown deceased persons. The NCIDD enables police agencies to compare DNA profiles from a crime scene with convicted offenders throughout Australia. Additionally, the database allows police to match profiles from two or more unsolved crime scenes, linking seemingly unrelated police investigations. By 30 June 2012, the NCIDD had linked 69,606 individuals to crime scenes, and had made 12,216 crime scene to crime scene links. At 31 December 2012, there were 713,200 profiles recorded on the NCIDD. As well as their ongoing day to day value to Australian police, the international value of these systems was proven following the Bali bombings in 2002 and the Australian response to the Thailand tsunami of 2004.Child Protection
National Child Offender System
The National Child Offender System (NCOS) provides operational police with tools to achieve nationally consistent registration and management of child offenders. The NCOS consists of the Australian National Child Offender Register (ANCOR) and the Managed Person System (MPS). The ANCOR supports online crime prevention and allows authorised police officers to register, case manage and share information about registered persons. It assists police to uphold child protection legislation in their state or territory. The MPS holds information on offenders who are charged but not convicted, or after an offender's reporting obligations have been completed.Child Exploitation Tracking System
The Child Exploitation Tracking System (CETS) is a joint initiative between CrimTrac, police agencies and Microsoft. The primary objective of the CETS is to improve police efforts to identify children exposed to significant risk of sexual abuse, and reduce police exposure to child exploitation material. The CETS automatically matches seized child exploitation material with previously identified material. This makes it easier for police to identify material created by an offender, and increases police capacity to identify victims.Police Reference Services
National Police Reference System
The National Police Reference System (NPRS) enables Australian police agencies to integrate their data with data from other police agencies. The NPRS supports police and other law enforcement agencies by providing key reference data to support first responders, investigators and analysts. In the 2011-12 financial year, more than 53,000 police users conducted 35 million transactions using the NPRS. During this period, 10 million person records with 5.7 million photographs were available for law enforcement purposes. On average, there are 96,000 daily transactions made on the NPRS. Some of the information included about a person of interest on the NPRS includes: name; identity information (including photographs); information on warnings, warrants and whether an individual is wanted by police; offence history; protection and violence orders; firearms involvements; and information relating to the child protection register. The NPRS also contains information on missing persons, unidentified persons and bodies, and escapees. In May 2012 the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) was the first authorised non-police agency to gain access to NPRS for law-enforcement purposes.National Firearms Licensing and Registration System
The National Firearms Licensing and Registration System (NFLRS) holds information on: • past and current firearm license holders • licensed firearms dealers • registered, lost or stolen firearms. CrimTrac collects and shares firearm license and registration information between all police agencies and approved external agencies. Police officers responding to an incident can be advised if a person is the registered owner of a firearm. There are more than 4.5 million firearms recorded on the NFLRS.National Vehicles of Interest
The National Vehicle of Interest (NVOI) system records stolen, recovered and suspect vehicle details. This service enables Australian police agencies to share information on vehicle registration, driver license and vehicle owner details. In the 2011-12 financial year, more than 188,000 incidents were registered on the system.National Police Checking Service
CrimTrac worked together with Australia's police agencies to deliver the National Police Checking Service (NPCS). The NPCS enhances the safety and security of the community by ensuring the integrity of individuals placed in a position of trust. The NPCS provides Australian police agencies, and other agencies accredited with CrimTrac, with a national view of police history information. A National Police History Check involves checking and releasing police information about an individual, subject to relevant legislation and policies. This is used to assess an individual's suitability for employment, Australian citizenship, or appointment to positions of trust. CrimTrac delivers the NPCS to more than 120 organisations across the country. These include police agencies, public and private sector organisations and not-for-profit organisations. The NPCS processed approximately 3 million checks in the 2011-12 financial year. Approximately 29 per cent of all checks require further investigation by police. CrimTrac is working with New Zealand Police in a trial of sharing police history information.References
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