Vic Police database project faces $100 million blowout

Victoria Police has suspended attempts to replace its criminal history and crime reporting database LEAP, ahead of a redevelopment of the business case for the project.

The replacement, LINK, was initially planned for rollout last year but was put on hold, initially for six months and has now been halted to allow the state government department to reconsider the business case and funding requirements.

The department estimated the project could ultimately add $100 million dollars to the original $68 million budget approved by government, and would extend the deadline for rollout a further two years.

The decision follows two project reviews which revealed the new system, while offering opportunities to retire a large number of ageing business applications like LEAP, would require significantly more time and money for successful implementation.

Deputy Commissioner, Kieran Walshe, said halting the program would give Victoria Police an opportunity to re-visit the project's scope to ensure that the plans take better advantage of the extended functionality of the system and value for money.

"The integration of old and new technologies is an extremely complex and time-consuming task - there are close to 200 interfaces with 25 existing applications that need to be dealt with as part of the change,” Walshe said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the scale and cost of this work was underestimated in the original business case.

"In the meantime, LEAP is operating adequately and Victoria Police will continue to enforce our stringent security measures regarding the appropriate access of LEAP data.”

Victoria Police will continue to develop the business case over the next 12 months with plans to reapproach the Government as part of next year's budget process. The project will then recommence subject to the options being considered favourably by the Government and funding becoming available.

Follow Chloe Herrick on Twitter: @chloe_CW

Follow Computerworld Australia on Twitter: @ComputerworldAU

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