Our vision

Victoria Police will leverage digital technology innovations, process collaboration and an upskilled workforce to transform front-line operations, optimise service value and enhance safety, security and confidence of the community.

Victoria Police is well placed to build and enhance technology capabilities as well as strengthening the supporting services that underpin this capability.

This strategy aligns with the Whole of Victorian Government vision and national policing strategy where there is high public demand for digital government services and increasing investment in digital technologies, infrastructure and skills.

Victoria Police will continue its modernisation journey to ensure it can effectively and efficiently respond to changing social, economic and technology landscapes, expectations and challenges.

How we enhance and streamline existing technologies

Advanced digital technology capabilities will build upon a strong foundation, specifically addressing key capability with a focus on enhancing and streamlining existing technologies.

• 2016: Service Victoria established
• 2018: BlueConnect delivery program commences
• 2020: Digital Victoria established and Covid-19 Response
• 2020 onwards: Modern Workplace delivery program
• 2020 onwards: Service Delivery Transformation

Key strategic enablers

The Digital Services and Security Department (DSSD) is a key digital enabler in delivering business value and support to Victoria Police to achieve its strategic plans.

Victoria Police will invest in critical digital technologies, infrastructure and skills through key strategic enablers.

Our vision

Over the last five years, Victoria Police has significantly advanced its modernisation agenda around leadership, diversity, safety and technology. This has further improved its capacity to effectively respond to important public safety issues, while meeting government priorities and legislative requirements.

There is an ever-increasing dependence on digital technology services with breadth and depth of demand for initiatives of various degrees of strategic and tactical value. We must develop ways to shape this demand and focus our efforts. How we mobilise to deliver more new and enhanced systems is key.

This strategy will drive digital transformation for Victoria Police, directly supporting delivery of ‘Exceptional Policing Services’ through the goal ‘Streamline our processes to improve every interaction’ as outlined in Keeping you safe: Victoria Police Strategy 2023–28. Our Strategy for Digitally Transforming Victoria Police seeks to reform six aspects of our approach to digital innovation.

This will strengthen the governance of digital platforms, data and cyber security, free up resources, and improve our processes and our response to real and emerging threats. Streamlined processes and digital transformation will improve our capacity to deliver accessible, visible and consistent services across the state.

Our digital transformation will strengthen policing operations with more modern infrastructure, frontline applications, management tools and systems. This work has already begun but we need to do more.

Through more automated and electronic management systems for rostering, court documents, investigation management and procurement processes we will reduce the administrative burdens on our teams. Contemporary corporate systems will make sure this important work supports the agility we need to deliver on the frontline.

The goal is to ensure that this strategy endures over time, accompanied by an annually updated roadmap that details the digital work program.

The Digital Services and Security Department (DSSD) is a key digital enabler in delivering business value and support to Victoria Police to achieve its strategic plans.

Purpose

Key aims for the Strategy:

• Enable greater business agility using digital capabilities.
• Assist in refocusing efforts and funding to initiatives that will bring significant change and impact in a measurable and effective way.
• Provide an effective, detailed roadmap to achieve the highest priority initiatives.
• Inform clear and defined initiatives that align to strategic goals and expected benefits.

The Strategy explains the role and priorities of Victoria Police to support the change agenda and deliver business value.

The Strategy will be continuously updated and used to assess success and performance against Victoria Police priorities.

Objective

Key aims for the Strategy:

• Develop a common view of digital and investment requirements across Victoria Police.
• Understand the current state environment to identify strengths, issues and gaps.
• Understand the future state systems landscape and likely integration points to enable Victoria Police’s current and future operations.
• Identify the indicative cost to implement solutions that meets Victoria Police’s operational requirements and to assist in setting and managing budgetary expectations.
• Provide a mechanism for delivery of the Strategy.

Audience

Key aims for the Strategy:

• Technology Team: to align what we are doing together, how we are going to do it as one team and to prioritise what we do to ensure we are making a meaningful and measurable contribution to business success.
• Executive Leadership: to understand DSSD’s role in enabling services transformation and how DSSD will partner with Executive Leaders to achieve objectives.
• Technology Users: to understand the breadth, complexities and importance of DSSD within Victoria Police and the impact on each functional area. The summary version will be made available to this audience.

Advanced digital technology capabilities will build upon a strong foundation, specifically addressing key capability with a focus on enhancing and streamlining existing technologies.

How we enhance and streamline existing technologies

Since 2016, through BlueConnect and Modern Workplace programs, Victoria Police has demonstrated the ability to rapidly deliver enhanced technology capability. The foundations for digital transformation are now in place and able to be leveraged to advance policing in the digital age.

Our digital timeline:

• 2016: Service Victoria established
• 2018: BlueConnect delivery program commences
• 2020: Digital Victoria established and Covid-19 Response
• 2020 onwards: Modern Workplace delivery program
• 2020 onwards: Service Delivery Transformation.

Victoria Police is well placed to build and enhance technology capabilities as well as strengthening the supporting services that underpin this capability.

The four steps to build and enhance our technology capabilities are:

• build digital technology competency
• enhance digital capabilities
• strengthen supporting services
• align with Whole of Victorian Government and Digital Victoria.

This strategy aligns with the Whole of Victorian Government vision and national policing strategy where there is high public demand for digital government services and increasing investment in digital technologies, infrastructure and skills.

Modernisation journey

Victoria Police will continue its modernisation journey to ensure it can effectively and efficiently respond to changing social, economic and technology landscapes, expectations and challenges.

Current facts

• 21,000+ Victoria Police employees.
• 860,000 community calls for assistance received.
• 865,000 police record checks conducted.
• 300,000 service desk interactions per year.

Growth factors

• 2,700 IT change records implemented.
• 18% increase in data storage required year on year.
• 42% of all emails are malicious.
• 1.2 million Teams chat messages now sent annually.

Environmental factors

• 87% of Victorians now have a smartphone.
• 27,000 mobile and shared devices supported across Victoria Police.
• 170% increase in online services.
• 600% increase in information sharing arrangements since 2018.

Key strategic enablers

Victoria Police will invest in critical digital technologies, infrastructure and skills through key strategic enablers.

• Improve digital governance and decision-making: To accelerate digitally-enabled innovations in policing operations and administration.
• Focus digital investments: To respond to the highest priority policing needs.
• Design-in security and privacy controls: To keep us all safe and maintain trust.
• Leverage strategic digital platforms: To drive digital solution adoption, enable sustainable agility and minimise costs and risks.
• Nurture agile people, methods and partnerships: To deliver high quality digital solutions productively and to a high cadence.
• Connect data and information systems: To create holistic analyses and impactful policing intelligence and reporting.

Drive the right choices that quickly build more consistent, secure and interoperable digital and data assets at lower overall cost.

Risks and opportunities

• Localised technology capability may not align with enterprise systems risking service impacts and cost efficiency.
• Lack of fully coordinated and aligned technology oversight has the potential to diminish utilisation of digital capabilities, strategic vendor relationships, and enable systems and data vulnerabilities.
• Policy compliance is challenging as there is conflicting information or reference to numerous documents.

Tomorrow and beyond will have

• Oversight across all technology spends within Victoria Police to increase control and reduce technology debt and operating costs.
• Alignment to Whole of Victorian Government standards and governance that creates an interoperable supporting environment for knowledge, sharing, digital tools and ways of working. Also enables collaboration and develops cross-departmental views on processes and services.
• Simplified policy that is easily read and understood to promote compliance.

Key activities

• Internal process improvement.
• Enhanced enterprise level governance including architecture.
• Develop enterprise workflow management.
• Alignment to Whole of Victorian Government common standards and frameworks to guide decision-making and provide consistency.
• ICT policy suite refreshed.

Budgeting and funding that enables more incremental change, reflects the realities of cloud infrastructure and drives value for the community.

Risks and opportunities

• Rapidly increasing service demands and expectations require more mature prioritisation of digital initiatives.
• Technology funding is oriented around financial cycles, limiting the ability of the organisation to develop a responsive and strategic investment portfolio.
• Lifecycle funding must be built into annual budgets and preserved to ensure critical assets are maintained.

Tomorrow and beyond will have

• Strategic evidenced-based decision making and transparent prioritisation for funding programs of work.
• A multi-year strategic approach to investment management.
• A sustainable approach to managing the lifecycle of technology asset refresh.

Key activities

• Funding model changes (single to multi-year).
• Investment aligned to prioritised outcomes.
• Delivery of Financial Sustainability initiatives.
• Committed resourcing capacity to deliver strategic initiatives.

Digital assets that are secure by design and a skilled workforce who can ensure their integrity while pursuing innovation and data sharing.

Risks and opportunities

• Data is critical to Victoria Police with increased reliance on access to real-time, quality information.
• The increased volume and complexity of security events requires significant attention to mitigate risks to service continuity.

Tomorrow and beyond will have

• Integrated security and privacy capabilities across Victoria Police.
• Victoria Police members who are skilled in security and privacy standards and have access to tools and guidance to safely operate a digital government.
• Security awareness baked in at design for all new technologies and innovations.
• Automated and intelligent monitoring tools.
• Active management of technology risk and security.

Key activities

• Mature security monitoring, detection and response tool.
• Whole of Victorian Government and National Security standards.
• Security focused culture through awareness, training and communication.
• Embed cyber-security and privacy into service design and delivery.
• Proactive risk management.

Common platforms that reduce portfolio complexity, improve connectivity, unlock productivity and enable workforce mobility.

Risks and opportunities

• Recent investment in digital technologies has delivered foundational capabilities that can be expanded upon to service organisational needs.
• Legacy technology systems need to be constantly reviewed to ensure fitness for purpose.
• Existing manual processes present an opportunity for automation to increase efficiency and user experience.

Tomorrow and beyond will have

• Platforms that enable greater mobility and supports a working from anywhere collaborative workforce.
• Connected Whole of Victorian Government / National enterprise platforms that drive interoperability, efficiencies and effective services.
• Common digital platforms utilising an ecosystem of interconnected technologies, platforms and services (e.g. Internet of Things, Analytics, Finance and Human Resource Management).
• Enhanced communications to and from the community.

Key activities

• Progress process digitalisation.
• Develop digital platform roadmaps.
• Progressive capability streamlining and rationalisation.
• Foster effective partnerships and work with Digital Victoria to ensure alignment to Whole of Victorian Government initiatives.

Raise the digital skill base and expectation of ongoing learning, innovation and partnerships. Use human centred techniques to design and deploy new services.

Risks and opportunities

• Opportunities exist to leverage the maturation of a Whole of Victorian Government approach to digital transformation led by Digital Victoria.
• Existing end-to-end processes can be improved through close partnership with Service Delivery Transformation Command.
• Vendor relationships can be strategically leveraged to deliver more value for Victoria Police.

Tomorrow and beyond will have

• Common enterprise corporate platforms leveraged through Whole of Victorian Government collaboration.
• Processes focusing on a ‘digital-first’ approach over existing manual processes.
• A workplace that efficiently uses digital tools to enable continuous innovation.
• Strategic partnerships with industry, academia, Digital Victoria and the community.
• Create a professional workforce with upskilled technical delivery capability.

Key activities

• Streamlining of internal processes, workflows and governance.
• Strengthen our partner network.
• Enterprise Digital Workflow Management.
• Develop a professional development framework and roadmap for e-competency capability enhancement.
• Increased staff awareness of digital functions and capabilities.

Treat data as an asset whose value goes up when well structured, linked, shared and maintained. Create impact for Victorians by using connected data to make policing decisions.

Risks and opportunities

• Data sharing across Victoria Police and other government departments and use in producing analytics is challenging due to inconsistent data models and data governance.
• Data is critical to Victoria Police with increased reliance on access to real-time, quality information.
• Opportunities exist to automate currently manual processes.

Tomorrow and beyond will have

• Data managed as a valuable asset. With privacy at the centre, data is searchable, linked, shared and leveraged, protected and maintained.
• Predictive and preventative strategies developed using data and AI-enabled tools and statistical modelling.
• Ethical collection and use of data.
• Enhanced connectivity to other government departments.

Key activities

• Enhanced information management capability.
• Enterprise data model development.
• Security strategy refresh.
• Fit for purpose digital analytics capability.
• Transformation initiatives to digital technologies for data, information and a knowledge based enterprise, eliminate manual processes with digital technologies.