Courts reveal how NT Police SerPro rollout caused five-month paperwork ‘backlog’

Paperwork delays and backlogs due to new police case management system SerPro has reportedly caused ‘miscarriages of justice in all directions’.

In November the NT Police launched the new SerPro system in a promise to ‘future proof’ the Territory. Picture: Floss Adams.

The shaky rollout of the NT Police’s $58m case management system has resulted in “miscarriages of justice in all directions”, as a five-month backlog of data causes delays in the already overburdened courts.

In November the NT Police launched the new SerPro system in a promise to ‘future proof’ the Territory, however for months lawyers have reported struggles to access critical information from the frontline due to a “backlog” of police paperwork for recent criminal history, warrants, and bail.

Last week during a Supreme Court sentencing submissions for two teenage brothers Senior Crown Prosecutor Steve Ledek revealed that the IT switch-up meant prosecutors were unable to provide an accurate record of the boys’ offending.

“Just to advise, recently there was a transition from the original IJIS (Integrated Justice Information System) information system to the new SerPro system,” Mr Ledek told Justice Graham Hiley on Tuesday.

Minister Brent Potter and Acting Commander John Atkin looks at the SerPro. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“Unfortunately we have backlogs in terms of updates of data and criminal history and warrants that go back to November of last year.”

“Information for the courts that have been prepared are unfortunately inaccurate as to a complete record of all of the sentence and convicted offending that may have occurred between November and now.”

“Similarly I’ve not really calculated times where they were on bail … (for) an overall assessment of the period they’ve been in custody or detention.”

Mr Ledek said in order to access this information lawyers had to manually go through IJIS and “match” and identify other alleged or convicted offences from that five-month period

He told the Supreme Court that due to the technical issues he would need more time to “do my best to fill in the gaps”.

The NT News is also aware of a number of lower court matters which have also been thrown into disarray due to issues with SerPro.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Steve Ledek revealed that the NT Police IT switch-up meant prosecutors were unable to provide an accurate report to the courts. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

In a single sitting in December Local Court Judge Elizabeth Morris dismissed charges against a man who was wrongfully arrested, while two others were released after it was revealed no paperwork had been filed for the people in custody.

The administration errors were blamed on the police IT system rollout.

It is also understood that paperwork issues with the police system led to a number of kids in custody being released in January, with a source telling the NT News there were “miscarriages of justice in all directions”.

“The alleged victims and the accused all deserve better,” they said.

Safe NT Assistant Director Donna Quong acknowledged there was a delay in ensuring criminal history reports in SerPro were up to date.

“(But) the process of creating and accessing a criminal history report, used by prosecutors for courts, has always been manual,” Ms Quong said.

“This has not fundamentally changed since SerPro but the new system has required a period of settling in and adjustment of resources due to additional tasks and increased manual intervention requirements.”

Ms Quong said there were simple processes that police and prosecutions could use to get access to that information, and they could also request an urgent and escalated process.

“It is the responsibility of the prosecutors who hand up the information to the courts to ensure that is correct,” she said.

The SerPro rollout comes six years after Niche Technology Inc was awarded the $5.6m contract to develop an integrated ‘Policing Information Business System’, including providing software licences and support services, to replace the 25-year-old Police Real-time Online Management and Information System (PROMIS).

According to NT Department of Corporate and Digital Development annual reports the system was also used by Queensland and South Australian police forces.

The 2018-19 annual report said it would be delivered in two years and “transform” frontline policing by improving access to real-time policing records digitally, regardless of location and “enabled to use on mobile devices”.

More than four years later it was rolled out, with the police union stating it had “no mobility solutions designed” and had resulted in “unlawful arrests”.

In an August 2023 report to the government, Auditor General Julie Crisp signalled she intended to audit the implementation of the SerPro system, which had a total allocated budget of $45m.

A DCDD spokeswoman said there was an “adjustment period” following the introduction of any new system, and NT Police were provided a “dedicated team” to help them in this initial rollout period.

“Extensive training and preparation was undertaken prior to the introduction of the new system and our teams continue to work closely with police to ensure staff are fully trained and fully supported in their use of the system,” she said.

She said the two year delay to the SerPro rollout was due to Covid-19.

Originally published as Courts reveal how NT Police SerPro rollout caused five-month paperwork ‘backlog’