‘Human error’ takes NT Police IT system offline again

THE NT police force’s trouble-plagued IT system was out of action again on Wednesday due to what a spokeswoman described as ‘human error’

NTPA acting President Col Goodsell is unimpressed with the malfunctioning PROMIS system. Picture: SUPPLIED

THE NT police force’s trouble-plagued IT system was out of action again yesterday due to what a spokeswoman described as “human error”.

The Northern Territory Police, Fire and Emergency Services spokeswoman said the PROMIS case management system was expected to be back online today.

“It is believed the outage was due to human error,” she said.

“It is expected that the systems will be back online within 24 hours.”

NTPA acting President Col Goodsell described the “failing” system as being “held together with rubber bands and gaffer tape” following the outage, and called for an “urgent upgrade of the ageing software”.

“The NT Police Executive and successive governments have been aware that the PROMIS system was failing and being held together with rubber bands and gaffer tape for years,” he said.

“While the system is down, police will be unable to conduct checks on persons or addresses for active alerts or an individual’s criminal history.”

Mr Goodsell said police would still be able to conduct checks on warrants and court orders and acknowledged the Territory Government’s commitment to replace the system, but said a permanent solution could still be years away and should be fast-tracked.

“We acknowledge the commitment by the current government of a significant sum to replace PROMIS, however that replacement may take up to another four years to implement,” he said.

The police spokeswoman said the disruption would not affect NTPFES’ capability or service delivery to the community.

“The 131 444 and 000 numbers have not been affected,” she said.

“During this time, you can stay up-to-date through the PFES Facebook pages.”

The latest outage comes after a four-day shut down in 2016.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner and Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw announced a $45 million overhaul of the PROMIS system in April last year.

At the time, Mr Gunner said $8.6 million of that money would be spent during 2017.