Following a restructure of its IT section last year, Australia’s top criminal intelligence agency has chosen Samuel Lewis as its new chief information officer. Lewis, who formerly served as the agency’s chief technology officer (CIO), will take over as CEO of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission beginning next week.
He has been serving in the position since December, supervising crucial national information and intelligence sharing services, as well as systems utilised by state and territorial law enforcement authorities.
Lewis succeeds previous CIO Stewart Sibree, who has been named temporary executive director of the new intelligence and information systems division.
Deputy CEO Anne Brown told that the new division was established to “recognise the important enabling capabilities that technology contributes to the ACIC’s operations.”
She stated that Sibree will serve as interim executive director until a permanent successor for the division’s leadership is selected.
Lewis, as CIO, will manage the CIO branch, which is responsible for maintaining the availability, continuity, and security of the ACIC’s ICT, which supports essential national law enforcement services.
Lewis, who has spent the previous two years as CTO, adds a “depth of technical knowledge and expertise to the post,” according to Brown.
Lewis’ appointment comes as the ACIC begins the second phase of its 20-year-old national automated fingerprint identification system upgrade (NAFIS).
The agency inked a $180 million contract with incumbent vendor IDEMIA in November to offer a “fully updated, maintained system with secured government cloud capabilities.” Three years ago, ACIC terminated its contract with NEC Australia for the previous NAFIS upgrade known as the biometrics identification solution (BIS) project. In addition, the ACIC is continuing to collaborate with the Department of Home Affairs to integrate state-based policing agencies into the national criminal intelligence system (NCIS).
