Victoria Police refreshes online reporting

Victoria Police has upgraded its online reporting function for non-emergency crimes as its seven-year contract with provider Serco reaches expiry.

Serco has overseen the force’s police assistance line (PAL) and online reporting (OLR) channels for the past seven years, having signed a $177.7-million contract in 2018.

Ahead of the contract’s expiry in July, Victoria Police tapped the outsourcing firm to refresh the online reporting channel, simplify user experience and add new categories such as burglary and motor vehicle theft.

In a statement to iTnews, a Victoria Police spokesperson said the website, which uses Salesforce’s platform, now allows people to save a report and complete it later and has a “more user-friendly interface”.

“More than 43,500 people used Victoria Police’s website to report non-urgent crime in the past year alone,” they added.

According to Victoria Police’s annual procurement plan, a new tender for PAL and OLR services was expected to be issued in February. However, no public record of the tender appears to exist.