'Damning' AFP staff survey reveals lack of confidence in admin, innovation

A third of the nearly 5000 police officers and supporting staff who responded to the survey also say the technology they deal with affects their work to a great - or very great - extent.

Top officials within the Australian Federal Police conceded the poor results from 2021 in a Senate estimates hearing on Monday evening, saying there had "modest improvements" in the survey since.

Negative responses were also recorded for questions around having too many competing priorities as well as having multiple layers of decision-making within the AFP.

Australian Federal Police chief operating officer Charlotte Tressler said her team had looked a range of initiatives to improve the results, including creating a dedicated "corporate improvement" office and an innovation fund to reduce red tape.

"We are progressing ... streamlining processes, and looking to improve wherever we can," Ms Tressler said.

"That is, of course, an ongoing exercise. That work will never be done and that is something that we'll continue to work on."

Innovation, however, was another area the federal police force failed to score positively on.

Greens senator David Shoebridge pointed out to commissioner Reece Kershaw only 17 per cent of staff responded positively when asked whether appropriate risk-taking was rewarded within the AFP.

"That's a pretty damning conclusion from your workforce on things like innovation, isn't it, commissioner?" Senator Shoebridge said.

"I would have been shattered."

Mr Kershaw said it wasn't unusual to see low scores in innovation across police forces but admitted it could be improved.

"There's some cultural issues there that we are dealing with and we are adjusting our risk appetite to make sure those people that do want to innovate[, can]," he said.

The police force's 2022 survey was released earlier this month with Ms Tressler saying there had been "some modest improvements" in the identified areas.

One of those improvements included a 3 percentage point increase in the response to risk-taking.

"That's still lower than we would like but something that we're continuing to work on," Ms Tessler said.

"Change takes time but there were some we did see some real positive shifts that will continue to build on into the future."

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Senator Shoebridge raised the findings of a scathing Australian National Audit Office report released in 2021, which accused the police force of "serious deficiencies" regarding its record-keeping practices.

The police force's case management system, known as the Police Real-Time Management Information System, or PROMIS, was introduced more than two decades ago and has been the subject of heavy criticism.

Mr Kershaw confirmed the AFP was now transitioning to a new system but noted the PROMIS system was still being used around the globe despite no longer being fit for purpose for the AFP.

"There was 680 terabytes of data on one shared drive, which was not secure from unauthorised access, alteration or deletion," Senator Shoebridge said, pointing to criticisms of the police agency's antiquated technology.

Mr Kershaw said that incident occurred on a different system, not PROMIS, but added the AFP would have since "rectified that".

The audit office expanded its probe into AFP after auditors realised required documents were time-consuming for them to retrieve due to the agency having used three inconsistent record systems, the report outlined.

While the audit office found the police agency had been "largely effective" at undertaking its operations lawfully, auditors remained concerned over how and where crucial documents had been stored.

"Accurate, accessible and complete record keeping is fundamental to the effective administration of justice," the report said.

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