Operational advice issued across the ACT this week will provide general duties officers, who usually attend low-level crime such as burglaries, stolen motor vehicles and property theft, the discretion to forgo attending.

The new instructions come as police reshaped their local operational model ahead of what is expected to be a fall in burglaries and stolen cars, allowing them to push more officers across to the growing need for Covid compliance and quarantine checks.

Over 21,000 people are currently in quarantine in Canberra.

ACT police were guarded in how they chose to explain how the new orders would affect the public, saying only that "when significant police operational support is required in times of emergencies, ACT Policing implements business continuity plans to ensure it can continue to manage its workforce, workplaces and systems".

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Aggravated burglaries - such as if a home owner disturbed a thief and was threatened - would receive a higher priority. However, "cold" Incidents where evidence was unlikely to be found, would be rated far lower.

All ACT police incidents traditionally are prioritised into three categories with priority one incidents classed as life threatening and time critical, and priority three requiring attendance within 48 hours of them being reported.

These all form part of the ACT Policing performance measures which must be publicly reported every year. The previous time they were reported was in 2019-20.

The new edict is both a resource-driven requirement and one aimed at protecting operational staff from becoming Covid contacts and being stood down.

ACT police will not provide details of how many of its operational staff are currently stood down and required to be in home quarantine as a result of a primary or second contact with a known Covid case.

Lessons learned during last year's first Covid outbreak and the subsequent national three month lockdown are being reapplied to operational policing across the territory, and around the country.

Last year reported crime across the ACT plummeted in the three months of lockdown as people worked from home.

This created far fewer opportunities for household burglaries, and other crimes such as alcohol-related violence in the city plummeted as nightclubs and bars shut their doors.

However, crime spikes always occur even in the still of the suburbs, as was reported this week when a burglar broke into a Downer house at 4am, stole the keys to a new Ford Ranger and was involved in a number of high speed incidents before ramming a police car off the road in Karabar.

Last year across all 12 crime types listed on the ACT Policing website, excluding traffic infringements, there was a 24.5 per cent decline for the three-month lockdown period, compared with July to September 2019.

"During the COVID-19 response last year, ACT Policing reported a downward trend in a number of crimes such as home burglaries and stolen vehicles which reduced the need for police to respond to these incidents," the statement said.

"We expect this may occur again during this lockdown.

"For the safety of our community and our members, we are considering where we can reduce or delay attendance to minimise the volume of interactions officers may have with the public."

This rejuggling of resources presents a tricky reporting situation for police given that the Australian Federal Police's contracted service to the ACT government sets time limits for responding. A maximum 10 minute response time is required to life-threatening or critical priority one incidents, 20 minutes for priority two incidents and no later than 48 hours from initial contact for priority three.

In the 2019-20 reporting year, police beat the target times for priority one and three, but failed on priority two.

If last year's lockdown provides a useful guide, policing the ACT's roads is going to be busy and challenging in the weeks ahead. Last year, the near-empty ACT roads were too much of of a temptation for many drivers, with high speeds and excessive drink-driving.

Thirty more drivers were charged with drink-driving offences from July to September last year, compared with the same period in 2019. The death of another road user - a bicycle rider - on Thursday has raised the 2021 ACT road toll to 8.

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