Reasons a Police Check Is Delayed
Aaron
Last Update 9 months ago
There are multiple reasons for why your Police Check is delayed and is not returned within 60 minutes.
Around 30% of all police check applications are sent for further review by the National Police Checking System.
Common reasons for why a police check result might take longer than expected are the following:
Common Names
If the applicant has a name which is relatively common in Australia, it is possible for it to flag matches to information in criminal records belonging to other individuals with the same name. This takes the system more time to establish if you are the person in question, or if you must be excluded from being a person of interest.
Old Information
The information on police record systems should be regularly updated. However, outdated information may still exist on police records. If the applicant’s data has not been updated effectively, this may require the applicant’s information to be gathered and assessed manually by police authorities.
Issues With Police Records
Any problems with the information held on police records can cause delays to your results. If information on the system is found to be incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete, it will have to be fully investigated before the results of a police check can be established.
Transfer Delays
The National Police Checking System works by giving police agencies and ACIC accredited providers across all states and territories in Australia access to criminal history records. In order for this to work successfully, information must be transferred and shared between different states and territories. For various reasons, some agencies may take longer to pass on information, and this will result in delays to your application.
Workload
Sometimes, there are unprecedented levels of police check applications being submitted in Australia. As with every application, it must be managed correctly and meet all requirements as set out by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. Police check applications must not be rushed, and this means that a heavy workload for individual police agencies can cause delays to police checks as they work through applications.
Police Check Process