NSW Police core systems director departs with immediate effect

NSW Police’s digital policing and operational systems director Ben Shaw has departed the force just months out from the anticipated selection of the state's new core policing system.

iTnews can reveal Shaw, who had been overseeing the force’s legacy core operational policing system (COPS) overhaul project, left the policing agency with immediate effect on Tuesday.

The departure comes as NSW Police closes in on a vendor for the new all-in-one system, dubbed the integrated policing operating system (IPOS).

IPOS is expected to transform policing at Australia’s largest police force, with modules for managing investigations, evidence and forensic data, charge and custody, and intelligence.

It will also replace the force’s decade-old Fujitsu computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, which the force had originally tendered for separately.

NSW Police recently shortlisted three unnamed vendors to deliver IPOS and expects to have made a decision sometime between July and September.

A spokesperson confirmed Shaw’s departure to iTnews, but said the project “remains a high priority for the NSWPF and is progressing as expected and to plan”.

“A senior NSWPF Officer is now in place to lead IPOS through the critical final stage of the selection of IPOS,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson declined to provide any details surrounding Shaw’s departure.

In a document sighted by iTnews, chief information and technology officer Gordon Dunsford thanked Shaw for his services to NSW Police.

Shaw has spent close to four years at the force, mostly serving as general manager of policing systems since he joined from the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority in October 2015.

Since July 2018 he has served as digital policing and operational system director.

Shaw’s departure has resulted in a number of changes to NSW Police’s digital technology and innovation (DTI) group.

DTI group operations manager Darren Rajendran will take on Shaw’s position in an acting capacity while NSW Police recruit a new director. Data centre operations manager David Hartigan will step into Rajendran’s role.

Detective Superintendent John Watson will become acting IPOS program director.

Know more? Contact jhendry@nextmedia.com.au