Only two of the 33 staff so far allocated to southern as part of 1250 new staff promised in the Labour Party's coalition deal with New Zealand First had been placed in true frontline response positions as police staff understood them to be, regional director of the police association Tracey Maclennan said.
This was despite a police and public understanding about that being the purpose of increasing staff, Ms Maclennan said.
Eleven of the 33 positions might be considered by police staff as frontline positions, she said.
Those included two general duties supervisors, seven road policing staff - who were unable to be called on by general duties staff for other work - a CIB position and an airport constable.
Seven of the last allocation of 26 staff were posted to district headquarters, including a public relations position.
"Wanaka got one police investigator they didn't ask for, but they got it.
''They were just wanting frontline staff to be able to staff the lakes district," Ms Maclennan said.
Most southern members of the police association were "quite upset" extra staff were not going to the front line, she said.
"I know police national headquarters are of the opinion that a lot of these positions are front line, but their definition of front line is very much different to ours . . . and the ones left working on the front line still haven't had any relief."
Southern police district commander Superintendent George Fraser, who is on the police executive and is involved in allocations at a district and national level, said the different definitions of front line were "just semantics".
"To quote only two frontline responders is quite clearly incorrect."
Extra staff already appointed in community policing, family violence and road policing positions were "without a doubt" frontline staff.
"They're at the front end of delivering policing services to our communities and I would be doing them a disservice if I was to describe them in any other manner than front line."
The district's extra staff were allocated as per its strategic priorities, he said.
Police Commissioner Howard Broad said the allocation of the 1250 extra staff was made by the police executive, who focused on where the staff could add the most value, preventing crime and thereby reducing demand on frontline response staff.
Sixty staff had been assigned to communications centres, 32 as crime scene attendants, 35 for the Organised Crime Agency (on top of existing Serious Fraud Office staff) and over 50 to the Prosecutions Service.
A further 250 staff would be allocated to community roles, and 50 to youth offending.
"Our response and Criminal Investigation Branch staff face huge pressures as more people demand more services from police and the legislative environment demands greater detail for every case," Mr Broad said.
Ms Maclennan said she appreciated there was an "extreme" need to have specialist staff to target and decrease crime rather than "ambulance policing", but not at the expense of frontline policing.
The number of real frontline staff, those who dealt with violent crime and disorder, had barely increased in the southern district in the 14 years she had worked in the police.
Cromwell station had not had an increase in staff numbers for 20 years despite rapid growth in the town, she said.
However, some goodwill had been shown by Supt Fraser in agreeing that road policing staff allocated as part of the previous rounds could be called on for general duties in exceptional circumstances.
Supt Fraser said he was "working though the priorities for our district" for the next, and final, allocation round to see how pressure on frontline staff could be relieved.
District police management was due to make a business case for the third allocation next week, with an announcement in early June.
