What is the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission?
Created in July 2016, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) is a criminal intelligence agency focused on identifying and reducing organised crime in Australia. ACIC is part of the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group and National Intelligence Community and is a Commonwealth statutory agency established under the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 (Cth). ACIC presently sits under the Home Affairs portfolio after being moved from the Attorney General’s portfolio following the 2025 federal election.
ACIC quarterly newsletter
Launched in March 2024 and published quarterly, ACIC’s official newsletter, QRTLY | INTEL is designed to provide insights into the work ACIC conducts and how it affects Australians. The most recent edition was released in June 2025 and discusses Australia’s national wastewater drug monitoring program, ACIC’s mental health support practices, and recent research into privately-manufactured firearms.
Wastewater partnership analysis
One of the many programs ACIC has had running since its inception in 2016 is the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program, which uses specialised extraction techniques to estimate the amount of trace chemicals (i.e. both misused legal drugs and illicit drugs) in Australia’s wastewater. The wastewater samples are collected from, according to the ABC, “56 sites across the country” whose exact locations ACIC has said “cannot be publicly released”.
The June 2025 issue of QRTLY | INTEL provided an update on ACIC’s wastewater efforts by highlighting the work conducted by two of its partners – the University of South Australia (UniSA) and the University of Queensland (UQ), and discusses how their efforts have assisted ACIC.
The newsletter notes that not only does the work conducted by the universities enhance the capabilities of wastewater both in Australia and globally, but due to both universities having an existing relationship with Australian water utility services, they also manage the collection of wastewater across the country.
Water application
One of the outcomes of the many years of work done by ACIC, UQ, and UniSA is the development of “new methods to measure drugs in wastewater”, which alongside tracking known existing (and expected) drugs also supports the ability to identify new substances, which helps the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program identify changing or emerging drug use trends and threats in Australia – including from organised crime.
The problem of 3D printed firearms
In light of the concern of 3D printing technology allowing for the creation of firearms that exist outside of regulated supply chains, a recent ACIC threat assessment examined the landscape of privately-manufactured weapons and how criminal networks could adopt such technology.
National Firearms Register and improved gun control
One step that is being taken to address the issue of privately-made firearms is the creation of an ACIC-backed National Firearms Register (NFR), which is intended to go into operation in July 2028. The goal of the NFR is to establish an extensive and “near real-time view” of “registered firearms, suppressors, and licence holders” in Australia, which will help law enforcement agencies in the following ways:
- Share information between agencies
- Verify dealer licences
- Trace weapons
- Provide analytical and reporting features
- Allow for the issuance of alerts for high-risk events
NFR and ACIC goals
Given ACIC’s mandate of protecting Australians from organised crime, the goals of the NFR align perfectly with ACIC’s. In addition, the creation of the NFR will also benefit ACIC by providing extra data for ACIC’s Australian Firearms Information Network (AFIN) as well as the National Firearms Identification Database (NFID).
With all of Australia’s jurisdictions and governments cooperating in this initiative, it will, in the words of Jeremy Johnson, the Australian Government Executive Director Business and Partnerships, “significantly improve the safety of both the community and the police”.
Key takeaways
ACIC’s quarterly newsletter, QRTLY | INTEL, is designed to educate readers about the work done by the agency to protect Australians from both domestic and international threats of organised crime.
The June update, in addition to showing how ACIC protects Australians from illicit drugs and unregistered firearms, also provided a personal touch by revealing the care and assistance it provides its staff to ensure they can do the best job possible to protect their fellow citizens.
