NT Police’s new SerPro IT system ‘puts officers at risk’, NTPA president Nathan Finn warns

The NTPA says the rollout of a new IT system has ‘seen an ever increasing pressure’ placed on police. Read why it was brought in.

Acting Commander John Atkin (left) takes Police Minister Brent Potter through the new SerPro system while Sergeant Lewis Chown looks on. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

NT Police’s shiny new case management system has gone down like a lead balloon with front line officers saying it has put them at risk and “resulted in unlawful arrests”.

In officially launching the new system last week, Police Minister Brent Potter said SerPro had replaced “a 25-year-old, obsolete PROMIS system” and would “provide more efficient policing”.

“It is a modern system and it future proofs the NT police force going into the future,” he said.

“What it ultimately does is allow officers to not be behind a desk when dealing with and fighting crime — it allows them to do that on the move as we see that technology and equipment rolled out.”

But NT Police Association president Nathan Finn said the new system was “not working” and if it could not be fixed, the force should consider reverting to the old PROMIS system.

NT Police Association president Nathan Finn says the new system is ‘not working’. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“The only thing SerPro is streamlining is the members’ stress which is causing irreparable damage to our members’ mental health,” he said.

Mr Finn said the rollout had ”seen an ever increasing pressure” placed on police “to roll the system out as soon as possible within current budget parameters regardless of its functionality”.

“It has increased the administration burden of our members substantially, with members reporting a doubling of the administration burden, which is having a detrimental effect to our already reduced and well-reported staffing shortages across the NTPF,” he said.

“The system has no mobility solutions designed, so (it is) limited to desktop operations and the requirement for members to update and upload information from stations, reducing the time members are on the road and in the public.

“Members are reporting delays in entering information and delays in accessing information from SerPro which is effectively placing our members at risk when attending incidents without being able to obtain risk-critical information in a timely manner.”

Acting Commander John Atkin said the top brass would support officers through the initial ‘adjustment period’. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

In response, NT Police Acting Commander John Atkin said officers were still going through an “adjustment period” since SerPro went live in November “and my team are here to support them to do their job”.

“SerPro is a significant change for the NT Police, it is a digital transformation for our agency,” he said.

“(With) any kind of implementation of a transformation for technology that is 25-years-old, there’s going to be an adjustment period.

“Since go-live we’ve continued to provide training to frontline police officers and we’ll continue to do so to make sure there is good proficiency across the board.”

Mr Potter said “the old PROMIS system went on too long, it was end of life and we needed to make the change now.”

The bullet point summary was created with the assistance of AI technology (PaLM2) then edited and approved for publication by an editor.

Originally published as NT Police’s new SerPro IT system ‘puts officers at risk’, NTPA president Nathan Finn warns