‘Dangerous’ police shortages as SA town overlooked for years, union claims
Coober Pedy is underpoliced, with its APY community constables being “forced” into frontline work outside of their job descriptions, a letter exclusively shared with InDaily reveals.
SA’s police union claims that for almost a decade, SAPOL staff who joined to help the Aboriginal community have instead been “forced” into general policing at Coober Pedy because the station faces a “staffing collapse”.
A letter from SA Police Association president Wade Burns to the Deputy Premier claimed “critical” staffing issues were forcing staff into frontline roles they were not qualified for, while some incidents were not being attended by police.
One community constable – a role meant to build relationships between the Aboriginal community and SA Police – has, at times, single-handedly policed Coober Pedy because there were not enough officers available, according to the SA Police Association.
The letter, dated January 16, 2026, claimed nine of 19 Coober Pedy police station jobs were vacant and of the remaining 10, one had resigned while three others were unable to conduct general policing.
Burns said 35 workplace health and safety reports were lodged about the impact of “chronic understaffing” and “the destruction of cultural connections”, and had escalated in an industrial dispute lodged with the SA employment tribunal in September.
Coober Pedy is the main custodial facility that polices the entire Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. Burns wrote that the area had a high propensity for alcohol-fuelled violence and limited staff available for back-up from Oodnadatta and Marla stations – both more than two hours away by car.
In an Employment Tribunal hearing in October, one community constable said he was “forced” into general duty policing despite being untrained and that the stress spread outside of work was “heartbreaking” because it also affected his family.
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In a report lodged with Fair Work in September, one constable said this has been an issue since 2016 and being sent on patrol jobs “makes me feel uncomfortable and stressed because I am dealing with people in my family and people I grew up with”.
“My role as an elder and respected Anangu man in the community has been compromised as people see me as a frontline police officer rather than a community liaison role,” he said.
Burns claimed the constable’s experience violated SAPOL’s own policies, which specify Aboriginal community constables are “not operational frontline police officers and are not to be used as first response in this capacity”.
Independent Legislative Councillor Tammy Franks said the claims were very concerning and that it was “dangerous” and “disrespectful” for community constables to be used this way.
“Community Constables play a special and necessary role in our police force in South Australia. They should never be used to mop up understaffing and chronic staff shortages,” Franks said.
“The positions of Community Constables arose from the recommendations of various Royal Commissions and inquiries, they are much needed in themselves and should not be used to plug gaps for sworn officers.”
Burns said the consequences of understaffing were “entirely foreseeable” and SA Police Association had “repeatedly raised the alarm” with Police Commissioner Grant Stevens 20 times in the past three years and received seven “intermittent” responses in 2024 and 2025.
An SA Police spokesperson said they cannot comment on matters currently before the SA Employment Tribunal but that SAPOL “remains fully committed to ensuring Coober Pedy is supported with the policing resources it needs”.
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“SAPOL is taking proactive, strategic action to fill vacancies and support our officers in Coober Pedy such as actively backfilling vacancies with officers from other locations,” the spokesperson said.
“Officers from other stations within the Far North Region and across SAPOL continue to provide operational support to Coober Pedy, ensuring community safety is maintained. To address current vacancies, SAPOL has launched an internal campaign highlighting the substantial allowances and incentives available to country members.
“We are actively working with individual officers to accommodate personal needs and circumstances, enabling them to take up country policing roles.
“SAPOL has robust systems in place to manage overtime and fatigue, including supervisor oversight, recall management, short-term support from other locations, and strategies to reduce the impact of custody-related duties and conveyances.”
Burns’ letter said the issues were a “prolonged, systemic failure of SAPOL under the oversight of the government” and was sent to Deputy Premier Kyam Maher, Police Minister Blair Boyer and the Liberal Party’s shadow police minister Jack Batty.
Batty said the contents of the letter were an example of regional communities “paying the price” for under-resourced SA police.
“We are facing a massive shortfall of police officers, including the unacceptable situation of a half-empty police station in Coober Pedy,” Batty said.
“We can’t keep asking our frontline police to do more and more with less and less.
“The situation at Coober Pedy won’t be fixed until we have a government that can properly recruit and retain police officers.”
Batty said at the upcoming state election, the Liberal Party had a plan to attract more police and “provide better incentives to keep them in the force”.
A government spokesperson told InDaily that placement of officers was a matter for SAPOL.
“We have put our money where our mouth is by investing in SAPOL with the largest boost to police funding in the state’s history in this past State Budget,” the government spokesperson said.
“In 2024-25, SAPOL received 3,050 applications with more than 310 officers sworn in last calendar year – a huge jump from just 996 applications in 2019-20.
“A total of 439 recruits commenced training in the past calendar year, which includes 384 new and experienced police officer recruits and 55 police security officer recruits – this is up from 264 recruits in the same period last year.”
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