COVID DUTIES CUT INTO RBT CHECKS

TASMANIAN police conducted almost 75 per cent less random breath tests to catch drink-drivers during the past financial year than in pre-pandemic times, with the practice wound back to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission.

The Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management’s annual report also revealed police and other emergency personnel conducted an average of more than 80 quarantine checks a day during 2020-21.

The report, tabled in state parliament on Wednesday, showed 121,515 roadside breath tests were done statewide during 2020-21.

This compared with 281,175 in 2019-20, a year partly affected by Covid-19, and 438,322 during 2018-19 before the pandemic.

The report said roadside static random breath tests were suspended for part of the year, but other forms of such testing continued on a targeted basis.

Tasmania Police Commissioner Darren Hine said the demands caused by the Covid-19 pandemic had significantly affected police and the wider department.

“We continue to provide support to the Department of Health, in management of the emergency, and have diverted a number of police officers into Covid-related duties,” Mr Hine wrote.

Those duties include more than 30,000 quarantine compliance checks conducted during 2020-21, in conjunction with SES personnel.

More than 50,000 such checks have been undertaken since the start of the pandemic.

A state of emergency was declared in March 2020 in Tasmania in response to the pandemic and has been extended three times.

Funding of $3.5m was provided to establish a new State Control Centre and State Operations Centre through Covid-19 infrastructure stimulus initiatives.

Police were also tasked, through the Deputy State Controller role, to determine requests from individuals seeking to enter Tasmania and approving any exemptions from quarantine.

The annual report also showed there were 2320 reports related to family violence in 2020-21, compared with 2346 the previous year.