The safety of Tasmanians is in jeopardy because of the numbers of police assigned to hotel quarantine, the police union says.
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Police Association of Tasmanian president Colin Riley says the number of police assigned to hotel quarantine has doubled as police head to the busiest two months of the year for crime.
"By doubling the numbers on hotel quarantine, it's like immediately pulling out a large number of the medical staff out of a hospital and expecting it to function safely and provide a good service to the public," Mr Riley said.
"You then tell the patients - or in this case the Tasmanian community - there has been no compromise to overall safety."
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Mr Riley said Tasmania now had an additional 5 per cent of its overall police numbers dedicated to hotel quarantine.
This was, he said, taking an additional 13 per cent of police out of southern Tasmania to do work in hotels in addition to the current COVID-19 tasks.
"One example of the impact is that a quarter of the time, the Hobart police station shifts are operating below 60 per cent of their safe staffing levels," Mr Riley said.
He said the police had to ensure community safety in regards to public order, criminal investigation, traffic policing and emergency management.
"COVID-19 has blown out the emergency management aspect and the other three are suffering.
"To expect police undertake COVID-19 tasks for an extended period without the other three aspects being impacted, reflects a complete misunderstanding of how policing works."
Mr Riley said police officers left on the frontline were trying their best to make ends meet with reduced numbers.
"The right solution is to reduce the number of wards operating - or in the case of policing, telling our members clearly what they can continue to do and not do."