SA Police scale back country road safety deployments

Regular traffic police deployments to regional areas have been scaled back. An insider claims it’s because of accommodation and meal budget-blowouts, but SA Police says its strategic.

SA Police has scaled back its country road safety operations despite receiving an increase in funding for the program this year.

An SA Police officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has revealed the number of regional deployments has plummeted this financial year due to a budget blowout.

The force has confirmed the number of trips has dropped but says it is due to the strategic targeting of crash hotspots, not budget shortfalls.

Teams of metropolitan traffic police are routinely deployed to regional and outback areas across the state to have a presence and bolster road safety in those areas.

They roll out random breath testing stations, drug test drivers, and conduct speed checks in an effort to catch and deter motorists doing the wrong thing on country roads.

However, an SA Police officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said trips were recently suspended for several weeks, with members told there would be no further country deployments until otherwise advised.

The officer said at the time only one team had been deployed on a regional trip - to Mount Gambier - in the prior three months.

The number of traffic police regional deployments has dropped so far this financial year. Photo: Supplied

It is understood another regional trip has since been approved.

The member said ordinarily about four regional deployments would occur per month, with teams of around eight members travelling to any country location and staying there over multiple days and nights to carry out road safety initiatives.

“So in a single month you’d normally have three teams of bikes, up to eight members per team, and the Drug Driver Testing Unit, up to six members, go away anywhere from the WA border to the NT border and down to Mt Gambier and everywhere in-between,” they said.

The officer said they understood the trips were cut back “because the accommodation and meal budgets had blown out” in 2023/24 and the force was trying to “make up for” the shortfall.

“Apparently three members from a bike team have been given approval to go to the Riverland but they have to stay in police housing,” the officer said.

“Six other members have been denied going to Port Augusta and Mount Gambier for the same period due to no police accommodation being available.

“In other words, they’re trying to save money by forcing our members to share accommodation instead of giving us individual hotel/motel rooms and if police accommodation is not available then no trip – So much for country road safety.”

An SA Police spokesperson said there had been a 13 per cent reduction in regional deployments in the second half of this year, compared to the first half of this year .

“So far this financial year there has been a slightly reduced number of overnight trips to some regions – mainly to Local Service Areas such as the Far North and the Eyre Western - by metropolitan-based road policing members as resources were directed to other locations based on intelligence reports,” they said.

The spokesperson said Adelaide traffic police were being sent to the Barossa, Murray Mallee and Hills-Fleurieu areas, where there had been a “over-representation” of fatal crashes to date in 2024.

A total of 33 lives have been lost in these areas so far this year.

Traffic police general do not stay overnight at these locations.

SA Police deploys teams of metropolitan traffic police to country SA to bolster its road safety efforts across the state. Picture: SA Police

Statistics show across remainder of regional and outback South Australia - the Far North, Eyre Western, Limestone Coast and Yorke Mid North local service areas - there have been 21 fatal crashes to date in 2024.

The spokesperson, who described regional deployments as “a critical part of our road safety strategy,” said officers were “not expected to share bedrooms and motel/hotel accommodation is utilised when SAPOL-owned accommodation is not available”.

Opposition police spokesperson Jack Batty said it was “critical to have a police presence in our regions”.

“With 58 per cent of crashes that occurred in regional areas involving drivers with illegal blood alcohol content, these road safety measures are critical,” he said.

“For many remote communities, these trips might be the only time they ever see police.”

Police Minister Dan Cregan said funding for regional deployments “has in fact been increased and regional deployments will be boosted over the busy new year period”.

Originally published as SA Police scale back country road safety deployments