Business Systems and Knowledge Modelling Lab

Research Project

Information Technology Audit

Goal
The performance audit focused on a range of the support mechanisms established by Victoria Police both to facilitate the implementation of LPP (Local Priority Policing), namely:

• information technology systems and their management;
• human resource management strategies including recruitment, performance management and staff training and development;
• risk management;
• marketing and communications strategies; and
• planning processes pertaining to LPP within Local Safety Committees and the Force.

Funding
$26000

Acknowledgements
Victorian Auditor General’s office, Victoria Police

Team Members
Rajiv Khosla and staff from Victoria Police and Auditor General’s Office, Victoria.

Problem Space
In the last five years Victoria Police has made two major strategic changes in its vision and operations. The first one is rooted in organisational restructuring based on the Local Priority Policing (LPP) model and the second one is rooted in Information Technology (IT).
In its efforts to leverage the benefits of information technology the force has made major infrastructural investments in IT. It has undertaken a major rollout of IT hardware and software across the force. It has created a new Information Management Department (IMD) in July 1999 in its headquarters.

One of the main aims of the IMD has been to develop a more integrated approach for leveraging the benefits of information technology. In this approach the disparate systems across the force are being replaced by integrated systems for incidence reporting, rostering etc.. Major benefits are expected to be derived from this integrated approach. However, it will be useful to cost these benefits in order to effectively justify the investments made and to determine the breakeven point between the investments and benefits. It is also important to keep in perspective that integrated information systems are generally useful for business processes which are less likely to change (e.g., accounting and finance). The cost of making changes in integrated systems for business processes which are likely to change with time is generally quite high.

The focus of this audit however, is to assess the role of information technology for successful implementation of LPP and its realized benefits in terms of cost, time, crime prevention and reporting and other aspects. A number of findings and recommendations have been made in this regard. These findings have been submitted to the Victorian State Parliament.

Publications
[1] R. Khosla “Local Priority Policing – Information Management,” in published report prepared by Auditor’s General Office Victoria, June 2002. Report submitted to Victorian State Parliament.