Posted May 20, 2018 14:49:31

Photo: NT Police have had stab-proof vests since 2015. (ABC News)

The South Australian Government is putting the lives of police officers at risk by delaying the rollout of stab-proof vests, the Opposition says.

Labor said it gave SA police $4 million in February — while it was in government — to buy stab-proof vests and tasers for all frontline police officers.

Opposition leader Peter Malinauskas said the government is now insisting on trialling the vests.

"New South Wales has already conducted a trial for their frontline officers — and they work," Mr Malinauskas said.

"We know that the Police Commissioner wants these vests, we know that the police union supports having these vests, as well as the officers themselves."

Ahead of the election, the Liberal Party promised to provide funding for a trial of 100 vests.

Police Minister Corey Wingard said police want to ensure the right vest is chosen for the local climate and other operational matters.

He said he wants to get the trial underway soon but it is up to the Police Commissioner.

"What we can have a look at is the different pieces of kit out there and how it's going to work for South Australia," Mr Wingard said.

"South Australia has different environmental conditions from NSW, other states, other jurisdictions, and we need to make sure we get the right product for South Australia."

South Australia Police said it had already started examining ballistic and stab-proof vests and would not rush a decision.

"This is a really changing environment, across the world … so there's a number of products out there, it's changing all the time and the technology's really improved," Assistant Police Commissioner Linda Fellows said.

"It might be that we end up with more than one product, so we may need one product for the APY Lands in the far north with the extreme heat, we may need a different product for general duties patrols in the metropolitan area so it's a bit horses for courses for South Australia."

She said police would have conducted field tests with the various products regardless of who won government at the March election.

Topics: police, government-and-politics, state-parliament, occupational-health-and-safety, adelaide-5000, sa