Police Association president Mark Carroll says never-ending COVID-related duties are decimating police resources and severely compromising the capacity of front-line response teams.
The association wants Commissioner Grant Stevens to immediately halt the practice of officers checking QR code adherence, and recruit up to 200 protective security officers to deal with medi-hotels and other COVID duties.
Mr Carroll said the lack of front-line resources was now at a critical point.
"District policing teams, who respond to serious crimes, have been rendered useless because of these depleted numbers owing to ongoing COVID duties," he said.
"We warned this would happen a long time ago.
"The medi-hotels look like being around for a lot longer. Using significant police resources was never a long-term solution and it's already gone on longer than it should have.
"It is a simple equation — core police functions are being severely weakened and it is threatening the delivery of front-line policing to the public. We simply do not have the resources to fulfil the unremitting list of COVID duties.
"A lot of officers have even had their leave cancelled over the last 15 months or so, and they have copped this on the chin, but it can't go on like this. This situation is having an impact on the health and welfare of individual officers.
"And further depleting these resources to monitor QR code check-ins just shows an astonishing lack of understanding of the situation.
"This task is simply not an appropriate police function.
"It is an embarrassment for SA police officers that we are instructed to go around handing out fines to businesses instead of devoting our time to real, victim-related crime."
President Mark Carroll will be available to respond to media questions at the Police Association, Level 2, 27 Carrington St, at 10:30am on Saturday 22 May.
