New Zealand Police has set out to boost its female staffing from just 30 per cent.
The new Government is promising to hire 1800 more police over the next three years.
But with Police wanting to focus recruitment on fixing its gender imbalance, there are questions over how both goals can be achieved at the same time.
The Porirua Police College today hosted its first women-only recruitment drive.
Assistant Commissioner Sandra Venables said the force wanted to create a warm environment where women could ask questions.
"They might be worried about their fitness levels. They might think the education might be a barrier. There's all sorts of things. It's hard for them to come away from their families for some time," she said.
In 2015, only a third of recruits into the force were women, something they want to see increase to 50 per cent by 2021.
Ms Venables said she thinks this is "absolutely achievable, but we have to get the people coming into the pipeline for our recruiting process".
A recent viral recruitment video, costing $350,000, has seen over 500 new applications in two weeks.
It's an encouraging sign for the new Government's promise of 1800 new officers over the next three years.
"We need more females. We need more Pacifika, we need Maori, we need more more Asian. What we want is for our police force to represent the communities they serve," said Stuart Nash, Police Minister.
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