General

The current Commissioner for Law Enforcement Data Security, Mr David Watts, commenced on 4 November 2008 under the Commissioner for Law Enforcement Data Security Act 2005 (‘Act’). 

A copy of the Act is available for downloading from the Victorian Legislation and Parliamentary Document homepage at www.legislation.vic.gov.au

Functions

The Commissioner’s primary role is to promote the use by Victoria Police of appropriate and secure management practices for law enforcement data.

The Act provides for the Commissioner to perform several functions to achieve appropriate law enforcement data security. These functions include:

• establishing standards and protocols for the security and integrity of law enforcement data systems;
• monitoring compliance with  those standards and protocols;
• undertaking reviews concerning any matter relating to law enforcement data security requested by the Minister for Police or the Chief Commissioner of Police.

The Commissioner must consult with the Chief Commissioner of Police on the establishment of standards and protocols.

The Act confers a range of powers to enable the Commissioner to carry out these functions. In particular, the Commissioner may require the Chief Commissioner of Police to give the Commissioner free and full access at all reasonable times to any law enforcement data and may do all things reasonably necessary to be done for, or in connection with, the Commissioner’s functions.

Law enforcement data

“Law enforcement data” should be understood as meaning any information obtained, received or held by Victoria Police that is:

• sufficiently related to, and has the potential to contribute to and assist, the enforcement of the law by Victoria Police (either exclusively or together with other issues), including such law enforcement activities as:

•   a) maintaining public safety and public order;
    b) preventing crime; and
    c) detecting and responding to crime;

• relevant to enforcement of laws relating to the confiscation of the proceeds of crime;
• connected with the conduct of proceedings commenced, or about to be commenced, in any court or tribunal; or
• sufficiently related to, and has the potential to contribute to and assist (again, either exclusively or together with other purposes), its community policing functions, including but not limited to working collaboratively with “at risk” communities.

Such information includes text, images, audio and video held on computing devices or in hard copy format or other storage media, including but not limited to, data relating to individuals or aggregated data, written reports and correspondence, memoranda, official diaries, notebooks and other data repositories.

Law enforcement data includes any administrative or other data which supports Victoria Police’s law enforcement functions or activities and which, if not protected by the classification “law enforcement data”, has the potential to undermine or compromise such functions and activities.

Annual Report

The Commissioner must submit a report to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services by 30 September in each year on the performance of the Commissioner’s functions and the exercise of the Commissioner’s powers, in relation to the financial year ending on 30 June of the preceding year. 
 
A copy of this report must be tabled in Parliament by the Minister. 

The CLEDS Annual Report for 2008-2009 is available for download using the box at the top right of this page.