South Australia's police commissioner says some people should be microchipped as a crime prevention measure.

Commissioner Mal Hyde made the remark while answering a question at an international Australian Crime Prevention Council forum in Adelaide.

Mr Hyde said his comments were light-hearted, but added that society could embrace such a concept in the future.

"I'd like to microchip a lot of different people, just to be a little bit flippant about it, but I don't think that's going to happen," he said.

"I say it sort of flippantly, but who knows, because attitudes change so much?"

Mr Hyde said widespread CCTV had once been considered an unlikely concept because of privacy concerns.

He said community attitudes usually changed in line with perceived threats.

"If the world became more concerned about crime and internal security then changes would be flowing through much more readily and technology would be much more acceptable in that change as well," he said.