Police data put at risk: watchdog

NATIONAL police data exchange agency CrimTrac has problems with its governance, collection and sharing arrangements that may put at risk sensitive personal information, and law-enforcement data.

NATIONAL police data exchange agency CrimTrac has problems with its governance, collection and sharing arrangements that may put at risk sensitive personal information, and law-enforcement data.

Victoria's police data watchdog has raised concerns that the information exchange between the state police and CrimTrac may be a privacy risk, as staff have no control over its use once they hand it over.

The agency is reviewing the flow of information between CrimTrac and Victoria Police.

In emails obtained by the Victorian opposition through Freedom of Information, the Commissioner for Law Enforcement Data Security, David Watts, expresses concerns about the national agency, set up in 1999 for federal information exchange.

"There are a number of problematic issues relating to the structure and government of CrimTrac," he writes in an email dated September 14 last year.

"These spill over to CrimTrac's information collection and sharing arrangements."

Attached to the email is a memo prepared by a staff member on behalf of Mr Watts that states there is no way police can be sure CrimTrac will hold or deal with information in "conformity with the CLEDS standards".

"There is no mechanism under which Victoria Police can restrict the use or disclosure of information it contributes to CrimTrac. This constitutes a privacy risk," the memo says.

The memo states the inter-governmental agreement signed by all states and territories on CrimTrac "overlooks prior legal obligations" that any state government may have. It says in Victoria's case this was any restrictions on disclosure provided by its privacy laws.

Mr Watts told The Australian yesterday the memo was prepared by a junior staff member and parts were "entirely incorrect". He would not explain which parts were wrong and said the investigation he was conducting would examine all these issues.

"We are in fact doing a review of information flow between Victoria Police and CrimTrac in regard to the commissioner's standards," he said.

But Mr Watts admitted the review's conclusions might never be made public because of its sensitive nature and privacy issues.

Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said the state had a bad track record of securing confidential police information.

"After a decade of this government incompetently failing to protect the privacy and security of confidential police records of all Victorians, it is now clear nothing will ever change or get better under John Brumby," he said.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said she was unable to comment on agreements with third parties because of confidentiality agreements, but she said the police "continue to work closely" with the commissioner to ensure "we achieve best practice".

The state government established the office of the commissioner after years of concerns about Victoria Police's handling of sensitive information.

The move followed controversy about leaks from the police information database.