The state government wants to recruit another 125 police over four years, but tough recruiting standards mean most applicants face rejection.

Tasmania Police recruiting services rejected 174 applicants between July 1 and February 28, police statistics show.

Of those, 49 were rejected because of convictions for criminal or general offences.

Another 82 were knocked back because of traffic convictions and 43 for other reasons.

Then, 51 of the 141 applicants who undertook entrance exams failed.

After that, 50 of 88 applicants were rejected following psychological evaluations.

The high rejection rates were not unusual, and were similar for the 2016-17 financial year.

Police Association of Tasmania vice-president Gavin Cashion said he believed the recruiting  standards were about right.

”We want the best that we can get,” he said.

“Recruiting services do a remarkable job and their job is only going get harder now with the recruiting push.

“They are overworked at the moment; we really need some resources.

”You can imagine the amount of checks and vetting that needs to go into those applications.”

Police Minister Michael Ferguson announced a four-year Police Academy recruitment schedule on April 23.

“The 2018 recruit courses are due to start next month and in September this year, with a further two intakes in April and July 2019, and three intakes each in 2020 and 2021,” Mr Ferguson said.

”Providing these extra police on the front line is a tangible example of our $37.5 million pledge, which also includes taking regional and rural policing to the next level with new staffing levels statewide.

“We’re also investing $17 million to build new police stations at Longford and Sorell, strengthening evade police and hooning laws, introducing body-worn video cameras and replacing police vessels.”

He said the government had a target for Tasmania  to have the lowest serious crime rate in the nation on all “victimisation measures” by 2022.