NSW Police deploying youth engagement app

NSW Police plan to deploy a new app designed to offer alternative pathways to jail for at-risk youth, built on Microsoft’s Power Platform low-code app development platform.

The RISEUP app has been developed through a collaboration between NSW Police and Microsoft partner Barhead. It will replace the existing Penn system, due to be decommissioned next year.

Using Power Platform, Barhead was able to develop and build the first iteration of the app in 20 days using a team of just three people from the company.

RISEUP has been designed to help streamline police and case workers’ engagement with young people aged 15 to 18, reducing the risk of young people entering the criminal justice system as well as recidivism.

NSW Police Acting Sergeant Danny Kidd, from the Youth Command in South West Auburn, said the program will roll out statewide to youth engagement officers in youth command.

He said the new app has been designed to support the eight different programs in the RISEUP strategy, securely collecting information about young people participating in each of the different programs and collating it for further analysis.

“It’s that one-stop shop that helps police identify the young people to work with as well as the RISEUP program most suited to their needs,” he said.

“The eight different programs focus on prior and current offences; family and living circumstances; education/employment; peer relations; substance abuse; leisure/recreation; personality/behaviour; and attitudes/beliefs.”

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