NZ Police(MIS100 2009)

By CIO staff | Friday, July 24 2009

2008 ranking: 16

Senior IS executive: Murray Mitchell, ICT manager
Reports to: Deputy commissioner
Size of IS shop: 280

PCs: 6200
Mobile PCs: 1700
Terminals: 600
Hand-held devices: 100
Total screens: 8600

Industry: Government and defence
PC environment: Dell, Lenovo, Windows XP
Server environment: Dell; IBM; Sun; MS Windows 2000, 2003, 2008
DBMS: DB2, Oracle, SQL
Address: 180 Molesworth Street, Wellington
Website: www.police.govt.nz
Key IS projects this year: Digital radio; core network refresh and redesign; case management; infrastructure design review, public facing initiatives.


The IT team at NZ Police has a large number of ICT projects and initiatives underway — each of which will significantly benefit Police operations and public services. These benefits include increased organisational efficiencies and cost reductions, achievement of key crime reduction targets, improved employee safety in what is a high-risk public service organisation, along with more effective internal and external communication and information systems.

ICT manager Murray Mitchell says the ICT team has installed “quite sophisticated technologies” in support of the national Organised Crime Unit, and is engaged in widespread implementation of digital radio, that will replace 20-year-old legacy radio systems. Digital radio will also move Police radio communications from an unencrypted to an encrypted environment, meaning Police communications will no longer be overhead or tapped into — and therefore no longer compromised.

In the last financial year the IT team was committed to more than 150 projects, a volume not able to be sustained year-on-year, leading to a natural consolidation of the ICT project budget for the new financial year. This year, Police will focus on strengthening core systems as well as investment in the key project areas of digital radio and case management. On the DR front, Police this year will develop a specification for DR solutions for finger-printing systems and a core identity management system.

In 2009, Police is planning a significant upgrade to public-facing websites and recruitment portals, and will additionally develop public online service facilities including online employee validation checks for employers, minor crime reporting templates and online firearms licencing.