Damage to vehicles cost police more than $3million last year.
Information released under the Official Information Act revealed more than 1000 incidents last year in the police's self-insured fleet of 3126 vehicles, at a cost of $3.31million.
Of those vehicles damaged, 32 were written off and $76,898 was recovered from the sale of the wrecks.
In the Southern district, the 233-vehicle fleet was involved in 74 incidents at a cost of $147,269.
One vehicle was written off.
Police national infrastructure manager Andrew MacArthur said the cost of damage to vehicles was absorbed into each district's budget.
Police had self-insured the vehicle fleet for more than a decade.
``Over time, we believe premiums will outweigh claims,'' he said.
``All incidents are reported to our accident management provider.''
Incidents included all damage to vehicles, whether it arose from a crash or intentional damage, such as vandalism, he said.
If a private vehicle was damaged by an officer in the line of duty, police most often covered the cost.
``Police has a contract with Sureplan Ltd to deal with issues arising where a police vehicle is at fault for an accident that generates a third-party claim,'' Mr MacArthur said.
``If Sureplan advise that payment is due to a third party, then in most cases police will make that payment.''
Police budgeted $2million for vehicle accident costs in the 2016-17 financial year.
