NSW Police has relaunched its search for a new core policing system two years after it terminated a multi-million contract with US-based vendor Mark43.
The force has issued a premarket notice for a crime-fighting system to replace its now 30-year-old computerised operational policing system – known as COPS – and associated “legacy technology and sub-optimal business processes”.
The latest procurement foray marks the force’s third attempt to replace its core policing platform in the last decade.
NSW Police stated it is open to both commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products or a single low-code product, provided they deliver on six requirements.
These are investigations management; information and intelligence management; procedural justice; regulatory services, crime prevention and public safety; unifying services and a unifying interface.
In addition, the platform will be underpinned by a data fabric – a centralised repository of NSW Police data, assets and information.
In a statement to iTnews, an NSW Police spokesman said the force is “focused on improving business processes through modern enabling technologies that will assist in the prevention, disruption and response to crime for a safer NSW.”
“The [force] has transitioned from a three-phased delivery model to a more strategic approach. This new approach focuses on rapidly delivering business-led capabilities in an incremental and agile manner.”
Third time’s a charm
NSW Police’s attempts to modernise its ageing core policing system have a history going back over a decade.
It first received $44.8 million in the 2013-14 state budget. Following a long-running search for a technology provider to replace COPS, the force initially settled on an Accenture-built solution, dubbed NewCops, which was ultimately discontinued.
It then launched a global search for a new vendor in 2018 for what it called an integrated policing operating system (IPOS).
By March 2020, NSW Police announced it had awarded a $177.8 million contract to Jeff Bezos-backed public safety software vendor Mark43, alongside Unisys to build and develop the platform.
Two years later, however, NSW Police terminated the contract with Mark43, sparking a lawsuit from the vendor, an apparent counter-lawsuit from the force itself and a quiet settlement between the two parties.
Speaking to the state’s Justice and Communities committee in November last year, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said: “We also took them to court and that matter has been settled with terms of confidentiality, and so I can’t talk to it any further.” [pdf]”
Deputy Commissioner Kenna Ackley also told the committee that the force had made “considerable progress and are on track to be able to deliver some really significant capability out of the program, in some cases even before we had envisioned being able to deliver it with Mark43 back at that point”.
NSW Police now expects to issue the procurement’s next stage – a request for information – in early 2025.