Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker will not stand down after the damning results of the NT Police Association’s survey that showed nearly 80 per cent of rank-and-file members have no confidence in his leadership.

Mr Chalker released a statement this morning after being made aware of the survey’s findings. He did not mention standing down or resigning from the role, claiming for the first time that “we have been aware of the confidence sentiment for some time”.

“The NTPA has said it will provide further details of the survey to its membership in coming days and will be addressed at next week’s NTPA annual conference,” Mr Chalker wrote in the statement.

“We remain committed to working with our people and the NTPA to continue to advance the NT Police Force and the health and wellbeing of all of our members.

“We look forward to discussing the issues raised in the survey and talking directly to the conference next week.

The online survey was completed by a massive 1044 police officers – a total not seen since the pay ballot in 2017 – and the second highest total participation rate in the history of the NTPA. There are currently 1608 members who were eligible to participate in the survey.

That means more than 820 officers of the 1044 who participated do not have confidence in Mr Chalker’s ability to continue to lead the police force.

NTPA president Paul McCue said in a statement that the police force was “in complete crisis”.

“Our members do not have confidence in the Commissioner, they overwhelmingly reject the government’s disgraceful pay freeze, they think morale is at an all-time low, and there clearly needs to be an urgent review into staffing which is completely insufficient to undertake the roles our members are being forced to do,” Mr McCue said, adding the no confidence issue would be brought up at the union’s annual conference next week.

“It is not the role of the NTPA to hire, or fire, Commissioners. That is a discussion, taking into account these survey results, between government and Commissioner Chalker.”

Mr Chalker and his executive team repeatedly down-played the no confidence sentiment over recent months, as more and more NT Police Association branches added their calls for a Territory-wide vote of confidence.

Mr Chalker and his deputies had initially said only a “small faction” had no confidence in him and that “this sentiment has caused anxiety and distress” for other police officers.

The preliminary NTPA survey results showed that 79.4 per cent of responding officers said current morale in the NT Police force is “low or very low”.

Mr Chalker said his focus was on the “health and well-being of all of our members”.

“As I meet our members across the NT face to face I get an overwhelming sense of pride in a group of people who work to serve and protect Territorians every day,” Mr Chalker wrote in his Friday statement.

“The job we do is incredibly demanding and the health and wellbeing of our members is our priority.”