Intelligent Policing using Information Management

The challenge

The crime reduction strategies and value areas within the Victorian Police Strategic Plan are well connected to both Government and community approaches. This involves an emphasis on establishing stronger community partnerships to achieve a safer Victoria and improve our quality of life. A key component of this strategy is based around Intelligent Policing, which is a proactive, problemoriented response to crime and community safety. It is driven by data and other information that demonstrates needs and priorities for policing services.

The challenge for Victoria Police was to identify a holistic approach towards information management that would support the diverse needs of the community, help to reduce crime, improve the quality of life and support personnel and resource management requirements.

The subsequent adoption of the COMPSTAT reporting forum delivered through the Victoria Police Operational Performance System “VicOps”) was intended to map crime, detect patterns, hot spots, identify problems and provide an infrastructure from which strategic, tactical and operational requirements could be addressed in the future.

The solution

Oakton and Victoria Police partnered to leverage the COMPSTAT reporting forum and extend this approach across all key operational areas. The combination of strong governance, business interaction, active member involvement in the design, the development of a working prototype and the subsequent deployment of the VicOps, has provide significant benefits for Victorian Police. The solution developed by Oakton incorporated a number of key transactional systems including law enforcement, human resources, finance and traffic. This was to meet the needs of the CompStat reporting forum and to support the decision making processes of a diverse range of end users in corporate, state intelligence and operational areas.

Oakton leveraged its proven Information Management methodology and worked closely with Victoria Police to develop the required artefacts to enable key stakeholder’s to approve the solution and to ensure that the vast majority of CompStat requirements were met. In addition, a prototype was developed early in the project to establish the project’s visibility and enhance the required level of buyin and user expectation required from an enterprise-wide initiative.

The VicOps infrastructure was based on leading vendor solutions including Cognos, Oracle and Informatica and was integrated into the Victoria Police environment across an 18 month timeframe.

Additional enhancements are now being planned to further enhance and extend the VicOps environment to support the evolving needs of the CompStat reporting forum and operational policing.

The business outcome

The VicOps project has been extremely well received across Victoria Police and has resulted in a number of dramatic improvements supporting the Strategic Plan’s key value area of Intelligent Policing.

The VicOps provides more timely and accurate information that supports the improvement in the solution rate of crimes. Members are now able to leverage up to date information and therefore are able to make more timely decisions. In addition, with an easy to use and intuitive user interface, the costs for implementation and training have been significantly minimised, improving the take up rate for the new system.

The introduction of graphical maps and key performance indicators allow senior management to quickly and efficiently identify `hot spot’ areas, and drill down to lower levels of information for operational decision making. This has supported the move to more decentralised operations model, empowering local operations to make decisions that directly impact policing in these areas. Finally, the VicOps infrastructure now provides Victoria Police with an enterprise strength infrastructure that is positioned for future growth ad changes in policing that will evolve over time.

Critical success factors and lessons learned

The diverse information management needs of the Victoria Police required a project approach that focused heavily on project governance and ensured that user expectations were managed throughout the project. Oakton and Victoria Police BITS management recognised the need for various project committees, user groups and key stakeholders involvement and this was actively pursued during the project. In addition, the introduction of a working prototype during design sessions enabled early user buy-in and ensured expectations were carefully managed.

The Oakton advantage

Oakton provides specialist end-to-end IT services to plan, deliver and operate business systems, as well as business consulting, financial management and assurance services. For nearly 20 years, Oakton has consistently enabled some of Australia’s largest organisations to meet their technology and business needs with a flexible, cost-effective, results-driven approach to service delivery. We employ over 1300 staff, and have offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Hyderbad (India), and offer a range of services across the lifecycle of systems and across a range of different technology and industry sectors

Oakton has a strong partner network with leading global and local product companies — this supports a sharp focus on the provision of services that support the successful delivery of business system solutions for customers. However, we do not develop and sell products, nor do we sell hardware or network solutions.

Oakton’s service provision combines highly skilled resources, relevant and proven service delivery methods and frameworks, and a strong focus on project delivery governance. Oakton’s enviable history of achievement for large and medium sized organisations in the private and public sectors is reflected by the testimony of customers to the quality of our service delivery and results.