The Australian Crime Intelligence Commission (ACIC) play an important role in combatting serious and organised crime that threatens the safety of the Australian community and economy. They utilise specialised investigative operations to evaluate, gather and distribute intelligence to law enforcement agencies to achieve their objectives.
What do ACIC investigate?
ACIC have identified priority areas for gathering and disseminating intelligence. While there are existing or known threats that form a substantial part of their focus, there is a continual need to anticipate and be aware of emerging threats.
The priority areas include:
Further, the ACIC hold a database containing all fingerprint and DNA material which allows for national forensic matching capabilities.
- Criminal networks – associations and activity
- Outlaw motorcycle gangs
- Cybercrime
- Money laundering
- Drug trade
- Cyber crime
- Identity crime
- Computer hacking
- Phishing
- Dark web forums
- Illicit drugs
- Drug trafficking
- Drug importation
- Drug production
- National security
- Terrorism
- Transnational networks
- Serious financial crime
- Tax fraud
- Proceeds of crime
- International fund transfers
- Illicit tobacco
- Domestic manufacturing
- Importation, distribution and associated money laundering
- Identification of international source countries
- Firearm
- Importation
- Supply
- Manufacture of firearms
- Victim-based crime
- Human trafficking
- Child sexual exploitation
- International exploitation syndicates
What does ACIC do?
- They collect, correlate and organise criminal intelligence and information
- maintain a national criminal intelligence database which is made available to law enforcement agencies
- develop strategic criminal intelligence assessments and advice on national criminal intelligence priorities
- conduct special ACIC investigations and special ACIC operations
- provide and maintain systems that allow information sharing for policing and law enforcement agencies
- provide nationally coordinated criminal history checks and conduct criminal intelligence assessments, including working with children checks and national child offender systems.
Further, the ACIC hold a database containing all fingerprint and DNA material which allows for national forensic matching capabilities.
What powers do ACIC have?
To carry out their functions, the ACIC have been conferred far reaching powers through the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) Act 2002 (Cth). Beyond being authorised to carry out special investigations and operations, they also have coercive powers that can:- Compel you to appear before an examiner
- Compel you to give evidence
- Compel you to provide documents
- You can attend with a lawyer
- You must answer all the questions asked of you, regardless of whether the answer may tend to incriminate you
- You must provide any document or thing they request from you, unless you cannot access it
- There will often be limitations on whom you can disclose the details surrounding the examination to. Confidentiality notices must be strictly adhered to. It is a criminal offence to breach this obligation
- There can be derivative use made of examination materials
- Evidence given before an examiner may, in some circumstances, be used as part of a criminal hearing conducted at a Court
- Providing false or misleading evidence is a criminal offence
