Commissioner Reece Kershaw has announced plans to encourage more women to look into policing and has set an ambitious target of 50 per cent female officers.

Northern Territory Police Association president Paul McCue said the goal made sense but that achieving it could not impact the quality of candidates applying to don the uniform.

“It makes sense to encourage more women to join the force, to better reflect the wider community’s population,” he said.

“Historically, based on previous recruiting, a target such as the one the Commissioner has set has been difficult to achieve.”

In the Territory, women currently account for only 29 per cent of emergency services staff.

The Katherine police station is slightly above average, with 39 females in uniform representing about 32 per cent of the workforce.

Newly-appointed Superintendent Lauren Hill said she could not remember exactly what made her want to join the police in 1989, but was clear on why she had stayed.

“I’ve stayed in policing for this amount of time because I really enjoy it; it gives you a diverse life experience,” she said.

“There is the opportunity to travel within the Northern Territory and there’s numerous opportunities to you if you go out and seek them.”

Female police in Katherine are employed across many ranks, including Probationary Constable Kirsten Graf and Acting Senior Sergeant Mia Wilton, who both said they joined for the diversity of work.

“You can come to work each day and not know what you’ll deal with,” Acting Senior Sergeant Wilton said.

Mr McCue said that, while it was important to encourage more females to join, positions would continue to be awarded based on suitability for the role.

“We hope to see that appropriate measures are put in place to ensure that the best candidates are awarded positions, regardless of gender,” he said.