South Australia's police union says public safety is being put at risk because officers are being diverted to perform coronavirus-related tasks such as guarding medi-hotels and monitoring QR code compliance.
The SA Police Association said hundreds of police who would otherwise be performing patrol duties and responding to call-outs were now tied up with pandemic control measures.
The association is urging the state government to hire up to 200 protective services officers for the hotel quarantine system — a measure it says would relieve officers and ensure they can instead focus on fighting crime.
"Police are being utilised in a way that they've never been utilised before," association president Mark Carroll said.
Mr Carroll said there had been a spike in complaints from victims because police had been spread so thin that response times had blown out.
"There is a critical need for us to do the work that we are required to do — victim-related work, victim-related crime, sexual assaults, domestic violence, child abuse — those kind of things need to be responded to," he said.
QR check-ins increased by more than half a million per day, but Mr Carroll said the use of police for such a task was an "embarrassment".
"It's a cop out, an absolute cop out, that police are being utilised to police Arndale shopping centre, Burnside shopping centre.
"That is not a police role, that is an embarrassment to police that has affected our profession as well as our standing."
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens defended the compliance crackdown, but said police resources "have been and continue to be stretched", leading to the "suspension of non-critical activities".
He also expressed support for moves to reduce police involvement with hotel quarantine.
"This will not happen overnight as we are still obliged to ensure the community is safe from COVID-19."
Labor has accused of the SA government of cutting $38 million from the police budget over four years, but Treasurer Rob Lucas has described that claim as "absolute garbage".
"All agencies like health and police and others that have had additional costs because of COVID, we have funded them.
"Police of course have been doing more than their fair share."
Mr Lucas said there was a community expectation that police remained directly involved in hotel quarantine.
"The police are required to do the job that ultimately the Police Commissioner, the government and the community want, and I'd be very surprised if there was widespread support for any union call to take police out of our medi-hotels," he said.
Labor's police spokesman Lee Odenwalder said coronavirus had taken "an enormous toll on police" and it was "time for something to change".
"The resourcing issue needs to be addressed. Police need to be returned, at some point, to the front line," he said.
