Association vice-president Steve Watt said deportees were increasing tension at such events.
“Gangs have become more sophisticated since the deportation of the 501s from Australia, and with that has come an escalation of the violence that they’re using now, and that includes violence they’re using against our officers,” he said.
“[Gang members] are getting more armed up, there’s more conflict between gangs as they fight for territory and places to sell their drugs, and that’s causing a huge impact on policing and it really impacts the safety of our officers as they escalate their operations [and] it has an absolutely direct impact on how we police them.”
Watt said assaults by gang members on officers had “absolutely increased” in the past three years.
Meanwhile, committing extra resources to monitoring gang funerals were taking officers away from other duties, he said.