Court coders

The NCIS Coders are a key component to the operations of the NCIS Unit and the NCIS. Coders are nominated court staff located in the coroners courts and are responsible for the data entry and quality assurance of the cases for their applicable jurisdiction or court. This may be performed within a local court system, which is then uploaded to the NCIS or directly into NCIS Online, the database interface.

Court staff seeking access to the NCIS for reasons other than coding must apply as a standard death investigator.

Eligibility

This access is restricted to nominated coronial court staff only.

Access level

Coder access includes:

• Home jurisdiction: Edit and Level 1+ - Access to identifying data on both open and closed cases.
• Other jurisdictions: Level 1 - Access to non-identifying data on open cases and identifying data on closed cases. Case reports available on closed cases only.
• Restricted conditions apply to Western Australian data.

User responsibilities

All coders must:

• sign a confidentiality undertaking
• keep login details safe and secure, and not disclose them to others
• not disclose any information obtained from the NCIS except for the sole purpose of approved access
• only use the system for your approved purpose.

Coders seeking to undertake research must apply to become an approved NCIS researcher. 

Training and support

Training and support  is available to all coders to equip users with the knowledge and skills to best utilise the NCIS for their approved purpose.

Usage auditing

The NCIS Unit conducts usage audits to examine the searches performed by a user and cases accessed to verify that usage is in line with the approved purpose. User audits form part of compliance monitoring activities undertaken by the NCIS Unit. These audits are performed quarterly and users are selected randomly. The NCIS Unit may contact a user for further information when examining audit results.

Request access