Flagged For Manual Review / Further Investigation

Once an application has been submitted to the National Police Checking Service, the applicant’s personal details are checked against a national database using a name-matching algorithm.

If the personal details provided match any police information held in police records, the system will generate a ‘potential match’, ie. the application will be flagged for Manual Review by the relevant police jurisdiction. 

Manual Review Explanation

When an application is 'Flagged for Manual Review', it means:

• There has been a potential match containing some or all of the applicant's details to someone who has a record in the police database
• The application is then referred to the relevant police jurisdiction for a further assessment/investigation (manual review)
• This process can take anywhere between 3-12 business days or longer, depending on the complexity (e.g. offences committed in multiple different states/territories)
• A potential match does not mean the applicant has a criminal record, it could simply mean the details provided are a close or partial match to a record in the police database

There are a small number of checks that may take longer to process during the manual review process.  There are many reasons as to why this may occur. These reasons may include:

• The check subject having a common name, or a name that matches with many potential Persons of Interest on policing systems 
• The check subject having old Police History Information that requires manual collection and processing of hard copy records
• The relevant police agency having inaccurate or incomplete records which need to be investigated before the check can be finalised
• Transferring information between the various state and territory police agencies before the information can be vetted/verified and/or released, and
• Workloads and resources within each police agency