Flags will be raised at the Tasmania Police Academy today in honour of 100 years of women in policing.

October 2017 marks 100 years since the first woman – Kate Campbell – joined Tasmania Police in Hobart.

Eight flags, including two 100 Years of Women in Policing flags and other Australian and police flags will be raised by serving female police officers.

The 100 Years flags will be raised by two of our long-serving female police officers, Senior Sergeant Robyn Harper and Senior Constable Sandy Kregor.

Following the ceremony Senior Sgt Harper and Senior Constable Kregor will receive the 30-year clasp of their Commissioner’s Medal, presented by Commissioner Darren Hine.

Commissioner Darren Hine said:

“Kate Campbell joined Tasmania Police on 17 October, 2017.

“By being bold for change she paved the way for all the women police officers to follow.

“Today’s flag raising ceremony provides an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on how far we’ve come.

“Female police officers now account for around 31% of our workforce.

“Women can do any role in Tasmania Police.

“Of course we still have a long way to go in terms of achieving true gender equality.

“One of our aims is to increase the representation of women in Tasmania Police and become a police service that better reflects the community it serves.”

A new recruitment campaign launched earlier this month encourages more women to apply to join.

In the first two weeks of the campaign applications from women have increased by nearly 700% compared to a usual two-week period.

In the two weeks since the launch of the ‘You Got This’ campaign we’ve received 161 applications, 109 of them from women.

“The response to the campaign has been exceptional,” Commissioner Hine said.

“We can’t hope to achieve equal representation without equal numbers of applicants so this response is exceptional,” he said.