Police Minister Felix Ellis on Friday said the state's police force had grown by 31 per cent since 2014 to 1428 officers.

He said the government had introduced minimum staffing levels at 24/7 police stations and trialed alternative rostering arrangements to improve work-life balance.

Police Association of Tasmania president Colin Riley said while the government had funded police officer positions, there remained up to 70 vacancies at any one time.

In addition to this, about 70 officers were incapacitated or on open workers compensation claims, he said.

Mr Riley said there were police officers that responded to the Hillcrest Primary School tragedy who were still on leave.

Labor leader Rebecca White said recruitment was not keeping up with demand to fill vacancies.

"We're seeing more police leave the service than ever before with 87 police officers leaving last year," she said.

"This year alone, the government needs to recruit an additional 140 police officers and they won't go anywhere near meeting that.

"We will continue to see police leave the service at rates higher than we've ever seen before unless we address the challenges morale and resourcing and that's something the government is failing to do."

Mr Riley said the government's commitment of a full-time Special Operations Group still needed to be delivered.

He said he hoped there would be a future commitment to general purpose dogs as well.

Ms White said Labor supported both proposals.