The New South Wales government has earmarked almost $126 million in its upcoming state Budget for critical network, cybersecurity and payroll system upgrades at NSW Police.
The lion’s share of the investment, $50 million, will go towards an extensive “critical network program” to improve contact centre technology, upgrade and modernise network devices and networks, as well as improve the service’s WiFi.
The program will also modernise legacy systems and other end-of-life technology, and ensure “audio visual link technology [works] efficiently with the courts and corrective services”, NSW Police Force deputy commissioner Dean Smith said.
Another $45.2 million from next week’s Budget package will be used to upgrade and modernise the payroll platform used by the 21,000 frontline police officers and civilian staff that make up NSW Police.
A cybersecurity enhancement program, meanwhile, will provide $24.6 million to ensure “police infrastructure and critical information is safe from malicious cyber-attacks,” Mr Smith said.
It will involve equipping the force with advanced tools and technologies to provide a “full cyber threat detection and response capability”, the government said without elaborating.
“The threat of cyberattack is ever evolving, and we need to be ahead of threat actors, internationally and locally when it comes to our prevention, detection and response capability. This is critical to the work we do,” Mr Smith said.
Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism Yasmin Catley said the funding responded to the need for NSW Police to be equipped to respond to growing number of cyber-attacks “at any time of the day and keep people’s information protected”.
No additional funding has been provided to replace NSW Police’s computerised operational policing system known as COPS. The force has been trying to replace the system for the best part of a decade.
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