Office of Public Prosecutions - Digital Transformation Program - Amicus

The program commenced with a discovery phase, which involved process mapping the current state and analysing the technology landscape. A vision of a centralised digital platform emerged. The design process involved workshops with end-users to cultivate a culture of early engagement and user-centred design. These Co-design workshops with end-users cultivated ownership and engagement. Once the vision was crystallised through clickable wireframes, we needed to partner with the right vendor to deliver that vision. By adopting a low-code platform approach, ‘citizen developers’ have collaborated with engineers on workflow customisation, which has empowered the team and emphasised best-practice user experiences. The result is a solution that is both functional and enjoyable.

Our team fostered a culture where empathy and transparency served as cornerstones. Daily stand-ups (including mini games to encourage communication between SMEs and developers), sprint retrospectives, and a continuous open-door policy prioritised open communication and support, including with the executive team.

Given the large impact of the transformation, change management was at the forefront. Initiatives like the ‘name the system’ competition, which received suggestions from well over half of the 500+ workforce, helped promote a sense of ownership and interest. Events like ‘Amicus Café’ helped gather momentum and generate involvement by staff, and a variety of hands-on training, floor walks, interactive user guides, videos, and one-on-one conversations assured positive user adoption.

Our approach to digital transformation was anchored by a robust, user-friendly technology platform. Integral to fostering a user-centric culture was incorporating legal professionals and support staff into our team full-time, creating a dynamic interdisciplinary environment. This strategy empowered our team and encouraged curiosity and innovation, emphasizing best-practice user experience rarely seen in government agencies. The result is a solution that is intuitive, accessible, and efficient.

Amicus provides a single-pane-of-glass experience that simplifies complex processes and ensures easy access to case information, improving collaboration, eliminating errors, and reducing administrative tasks. This allows prosecutors to focus on meaningful work. Currently, manual processes contribute to approximately 66,500 hours of low-level administrative work annually. The introduction of Amicus has drastically cut down case management time, boosting productivity.

To continue the focus on user experience throughout the project, fortnightly showcases and user acceptance testing sessions were held with end users during development. This allowed feedback on the actual product to be incorporated in the final design. In deploying Amicus, we have created a platform that seamlessly integrates multiple OPP functionalities into a single, user-friendly interface for efficient document management, reporting, and other tasks.

A key feature is the Indictment Builder, which allows users to create indictments using an integrated wizard. The platform also offers automated sentence calculations for offenders sentenced on multiple charges.

The Record of Decision Builder enables users to request approvals and advice from Crown Prosecutors directly within the system, adhering to a predesigned workflow for consistency and accuracy.

The design of the platform allows for the integration of future planned features, including a Police Portal for uploading evidence, a Victim App for correspondence and updates, and a bespoke generative AI tool for which a proof of concept has been completed.

Finally, Amicus can integrate with the wider Victorian criminal justice system, currently stymied by siloes. This will enhance collaboration and ensure access to accurate, up-to-date information, further establishing Amicus as a transformative solution in the criminal justice system. Implementing enhancements in a scalable way reduces long-term costs while promoting responsiveness, and a more responsive OPP allows for faster resolutions of criminal matters, better victim experiences, and increased community confidence.

Amicus has been designed with a deep understanding of user needs to develop a solution that not only addresses the existing challenges around case management but also redefines how the OPP operates in the future. With the new system, we have made strides in streamlining processes, improving efficiency, and enhancing user accessibility. Use of Amicus will expedite the resolution of criminal prosecutions, providing relief to victims, defendants, and the community.

Compared to the OPP’s legacy systems and processes, Amicus is a revolutionary platform. From the data schema design to the user interface, Amicus has reimagined prosecution case management from the ground up. The new system will save the agency thousands of hours in manual administration each year, boosting productivity by over 10%, and will surface rich data insights for improved decision making. The increased accessibility of the system facilitates better cooperation with our external stakeholders, promoting a more cohesive approach to prosecuting crime in Victoria. Our agile delivery methodology has allowed for flexibility and iterative improvements and improved our ability to adapt swiftly to uncertainty, such as unforeseen legislative changes.

Amicus has also paved the way for the safe and ethical introduction of bleeding-edge technologies like generative AI into the Victorian criminal justice system. In parallel to the development of Amicus, our team spearheaded an experimental GenAI proof-of-concept (‘AmicusX’) to test the potential of these technologies—being amongst the first justice agencies in the world to do so successfully. The design of Amicus will allow the integration of this tool seamlessly, so that it can take advantage of all the OPP’s relevant data and documents being accessible through Amicus.

Innovation is not merely about adopting new technologies; it is about fostering a culture that encourages continuous improvement, creativity, and forward thinking. At all stages on our design journey, we have designed for the longer-term future, and thoughtfully imagined how Amicus will integrate with the OPP’s criminal justice stakeholders for better community outcomes. In addition to providing users with a streamlined, single-pane-of-glass experience that simplifies complex processes and ensures easy access to case information, we have always looked forward.

We have leveraged knowledge sharing both vertically and horizontally across the sector. For example, we founded the ‘Public Prosecutions Interjurisdictional Digital Forum’, encouraging collaboration with prosecution agencies in other jurisdictions across Australia. We also established the ‘Victorian Criminal Justice Digital Forum’, which brings together senior leaders from across the Victorian criminal justice system, including police, Legal Aid, and courts.

This practice not only promotes openness and collaboration but also encourages us to think about how our work impacts and is influenced by others, enhancing our ability to innovate strategically and contribute to the community. Our roadmap includes the development of a mature data science and analytics function, providing a deeper understanding of the Victorian criminal justice system and the potential to identify systemic improvements.