Australian Crime Commission
ACC · Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission · ACIC
1 January 2003 – present
Australia's national criminal intelligence agency, which uses coercive examination powers to investigate serious and organised crime and also runs national police information systems and the National Police Checking Service.
How it came into existence
Established on 1 January 2003 by the Australian Crime Commission Establishment Act 2002, which converted the National Crime Authority Act 1984 into the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 and merged the National Crime Authority, the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence and the Office of Strategic Crime Assessments.
- Organised crime investigations
- Coercive powers
- Criminal intelligence collection and sharing
- Strategic criminal assessments
Legislation: Australian Crime Commission Act 2002
Changes during its life
- 1 July 2016Began operating as the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), an alternative name prescribed by regulation, on absorbing CrimTrac.
- 20 December 2017Moved from the Attorney-General's portfolio to the new Home Affairs portfolio.
- National police information systems
- Fingerprint and DNA databases
- National Police Checking Service
- Cyber crime intelligence
Staff were co-located in the centre; the agency kept its own responsibilities.
Main functions
- Criminal intelligence collection and analysis
- Special investigations and coercive examinations
- National criminal intelligence systems
- National police information and biometric systems (from 2016)
- National Police Checking Service (from 2016)
Where it sits
In the portfolio of Department of Home Affairs.
- Type of body
- Non-corporate Commonwealth entity
- Portfolio
- Home Affairs
- Accountable authority
- Chief Executive Officer – Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 section 7(3)(b)
- ABN
- 11 259 448 410
Lineage
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Sources
Primary sources
- List of Commonwealth entities and companies under the PGPA Act, 1 July 2026 (Department of Finance) (as Australian Crime Commission (Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission))
- Australian Government Organisations Register (Department of Finance, data.gov.au) (listed from 11 December 2014 to the latest release (30 June 2026))