WA police union may take action on numbers

WA's police union board will meet on Wednesday to discuss taking industrial action in response to both Labor and the Liberals ignoring calls for 1000 extra police officers.

Union president George Tilbury says both parties have their "heads stuck in the sand" if they think there are enough police to deal with the meth epidemic and rising crime.

The Barnett government says it is happy with the current arrangement of increasing police on an officer-to-population ratio while Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan has said 500 extra officers were needed over the next four years, at a cost of about $100 million.

Mr Tilbury told ABC radio on Wednesday the union would accept a number in between Mr O'Callaghan's and its own.

He said if that demand was not met, the union would consider action such as work-to-rule but would not strike.