CrimTrac seeks identity management advice

Federal policing information agency CrimTrac is urgently seeking a consultant to inform the development of a national identity management strategy for its data sharing service.

Tender documents released yesterday called for an expert to analyse the state of person data records in the Australian policing, justice and corrections context over the next three months.

The research was to be summarised in a scoping paper, which would "articulate the problems and issues associated with disparate data sources, data sovereignty and the redesign of business processes to support sustainable identity management".

The request for tender will close on 20 July. CrimTrac expects to appoint an expert by 25 July, with the expert expected to present a high-level overview at a meeting in Perth on 31 July.

Tender documents called for an identity management expert with:

• a good understanding of issues relating to data management and data use in a policing, justice and customs context; and
• experience and success in developing strategies for the reconciliation and merging of duplicate person data records across disparate systems and capabilities to create an accurate single records based identity.

The agency noted that it needed robust identity management to underpin "almost all of CrimTrac's capabilities for national information sharing".

CrimTrac said police needed to ensure that any person they spoke to had appropriate and accurate information stored against their record and that the relevant information was recorded against the correct record.

But it said its environment was complicated by multiple data sources and the disparity of business processes across agencies within the law enforcement, justice and corrections domains.

CrimTrac said the identification and reconciliation of duplicate or disparate person data across multiple sources was "imperative" to ensuring data was accurate and reliable.

“In an initial contact or emergency situation police need one record per entity, not multiple views,” the agency wrote.

"Development of a national identity management strategy is constrained by a lack of a clear understanding of the nature and scope of the problem and lack of clarity surrounding the current state in each jurisdiction."