The National Criminal Intelligence System Proof of Concept was built as part of the NCIS Pilot Program for the purpose of demonstrating a number of potential outcomes of NCIS. As a Proof of Concept, the system was developed rapidly to demonstrate NCIS concepts in the shortest possible time. The National Criminal Intelligence System Interim Solution was a concept platform which was designed to prove the value of increased information sharing and not provide a production quality national capability.
The Alpha, Baseline and future releases are new builds of what will be the production NCIS system.
The first ‘Alpha’ release of the NCIS was successfully delivered on 31 October 2019 as planned. It provides a ‘Google like’ search interface across National Police Reference System data.
The second ‘Baseline Platform’ release was successfully delivered on 31 March 2020, connecting early adopter agencies and providing the technical and business foundations for the system, which will be significantly enhanced through the life of the NCIS program.
Baseline release allows users to:
- Review a functioning Core Platform including NCIS foundational capabilities including a generic developer user interface and search functions.
- View results of searches in an updated Party, Object, Location and Event data model enabling enhanced Person of Interest discovery.
- Navigate dashboards that monitor NCIS data inflows and system usage for both business and audit purposes.
The COVID-19 impacts are currently being assessed. The budget remains $118.2 million.
In December 2019, the NCIS Program Steering Committee comprised of senior representatives of police and Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, endorsed a change in technical direction to host the NCIS on a public protected cloud, rather than utilising the Department of Home Affair’s hosting environment.
Cloud infrastructure delivers enhanced disaster recovery capabilities, provides ongoing agility in program development, and enables the adoption of emerging security and analytical services as soon they become available within industry.
The use of secure cloud infrastructure aligns with broader Government policies and the Home Affairs Portfolio’s strategic information and communication technology direction. The Department of Home Affairs has a contract with Microsoft for hosting and services via the Azure PROTECTED cloud.
ACIC and Home Affairs are working with Police and Law Enforcement agencies nationally on the development and implementation of NCIS. In addition the program is using expert services of a range of consultancies for security advice, Program Management and Independent Program Assurance.