When Senior Constable Vanessa Whelan first hit the frontline of policing 20 years ago, she was the only woman on her shift.
Now working in a new role at the Tasmania Police academy in Rokeby, she says the workforce looks very different.
"I recently came from the frontline at the same station and there was only one male on the shift, so it was a full about-turn in relation to the numbers of female-male ratio," she said.
"It gives a lot of women more confidence in their skill sets to further themselves in their policing career because they don't feel like a minority and we all support each other."
Tasmania Police has lifted the gender balance of its workforce to 37 per cent female.
A 12-month advertising campaign across social media, cinema, buses and billboards is the most significant the force has undertaken, as it tries to meet a state government commitment to increase police numbers.
Commander of education and training Jason Elmer said the advertisements showed young people what a policing career could look like.
"For us to be an employer of choice we need to put ourselves forward and show what we have to offer to attract people to Tasmania Police," he said.
"We're looking for people first and foremost who are of good character.
"We undertake a number of background checks, generally we look for people who are good decision-makers, who can perform well under a little bit of pressure, have empathy."
Commander Elmer said police forces around the country were struggling to find recruits, partly due to the nation's low unemployment rate and competitive job market.
"We've been able to fill all our courses but we are marketing strongly to make sure that we can continue to fill all the courses that we've got lined up over the next few years," he said.
It has meant some recruitment courses interstate have been run on low numbers or even cancelled.
He said the public perception of policing through the pandemic could also be having an impact.
"We're coming out of a period over the last couple of years in relation to some enforcement activities around COVID and whether that has had an impact on the image of policing," he said.
"We haven't had that effect so much here in Tasmania because we haven't had to deal with a lot of the protest activity and some of the other activities that went on in relation to COVID."
Eighty new recruits will start training in Hobart and Launceston at the end of January.
'Policing might be the career for me'
Constable Sky Eastley graduated from the academy at Rokeby in November and has been stationed at Hobart.
"I didn't really know what I wanted to do for the longest time, and then [a friend] put the idea to me that the way my mind worked and how I have the temperament for dealing with people, that policing might be the career for me," she said.
"I wanted something that is you never know what you're going to do at work each day, and the team environment that comes alongside of policing, I really wanted to be involved with that and it's been great so far."
The 23-year-old is finding the work challenging and fulfilling.
"I come to work each day and my mind is put to work, I feel like I'm constantly thinking, trying to think outside the box, collaborating with people, coming up with ideas, trying to help people solve their problems, doing what I can for the community," she said.
"I genuinely feel like I could accomplish anything I put my mind to now having gone through this."
