Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon today said she was also considering issuing a formal apology to gay and lesbian officers whose careers may have been hamstrung by their sexuality.

Ms Nixon, appointed to the post in April, said she would become Australia's first senior officer to lead the police contingent of a gay march.

Ms Nixon said she agreed to march in a show of support for gay and lesbian members, who asked her to join the event, held in January in the bayside suburb of St Kilda.

“They asked me about a range of issues that they thought would help them be able to work better in the Victoria Police ... and one of them was whether I was prepared to support them in this regard,” she told radio 3AW.

“And I come from a state where police marching in the (Sydney) Mardi Gras parade has happened for the last number of years, and more recently in uniform, and some of those police were gay and lesbian members and some were just supporting their colleagues.

“For me, it's about supporting and showing, I guess, some leadership to members in the organisation.”

Ms Nixon said she hoped her decision would not harm the reputation of the police and alienate other officers.

She said talks with 3,700 rank-and-file officers across Victoria since her appointment about welfare and work issues had helped form her decision.

“I simply see it as a way of supporting members who asked me to do so,” she said.

“They feel that they have been incredibly alienated. They try to do their work with the gay and lesbian community and they have been trying to identify some of the issues within the community, within Melbourne and within Victoria.”