NT Libs commit to replacing shaky police tech

The NT government has promised to replace the territory police’s creaking crimes database if it wins this month’s general election, but is hoping the job will cost less than the whopping $40 million previously estimated.

The territory’s police force currently uses a 17 year-old instance of the PROMIS system it licences from the Australian Federal Police.

PROMIS is already notorious in Canberra circles as the system the AFP just can’t shake, even after two aborted attempts and up to $145 million spent on failed replacements.

Now the territory is threatening to beat its federal counterparts to an update of the case management and criminal intelligence solution.

In the lead up to the NT election on 27 August, the Country Liberal Party led by Adam Giles has pledged to replace the system and deliver body-worn video cameras to officers.

A replacement of the NT Police’s system has been on the cards for a number of years, but gained more prominence in recent weeks after a crash left it out of operation for days in early June.

Police were forced to record all their activities on handwritten notes for four days, which they then entered into the system when it re-emerged, according to the NT News.

The territory also struggles to find IT workers with the right skills to maintain the legacy technology, and has a history of being forced to overspend on fly-in, fly-out tech workers from the south.

A spokesman for the chief minister said a re-elected CLP government would look to get a blueprint for the replacement completed in the current financial year, and approach the market in 2017-18 to buy the new technology.

In the past it has committed $2.9 million to the ongoing stabilisation of the PROMIS system.