CrimTrac takes new datacentre space

CrimTrac has opened a new "cleaner, greener and secure" data storage hub within Canberra Data Centres' facilities in Hume today.

CrimTrac gives 50,000 police officers around Australia access to DNA information, fingerprint records, the Australian National Child Offender Register and other databases.

The new Canberra Data Centres hub, which opened today, will ensure police officers have continuous access to CrimTrac data as the primary and secondary datacentres, and will back up one another should one of them go down.

In a statement announcing the opening, Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O'Connor highlighted the importance of CrimTrac in crime investigation and prevention.

"It's so important that the nation's police have easy and reliable access to the information they need. Getting that data means solving cases quickly and stopping new offences from happening.

"With the work of CrimTrac, many thousands of Australians have been protected from crime or seen justice delivered swiftly," O'Connor said.

"Having secure and reliable data is a crucial part of delivering that justice and making our communities safer," he said.

The new hub will halve CrimTrac's power consumption and high density computing will only require half as much space.

To ensure security of the CrimTrac hub, ASIO will carry out an annual audit and random checks of the Canberra Data Centres facility to ensure security standards are maintained.