The Northern Territory Police Commissioner has enacted a night curfew in Mparntwe/Alice Springs for the next three nights.

It comes after the NT government flagged the possibility of another curfew for the second time this year, after four off-duty police officers were allegedly assaulted on Sunday morning.

Speaking on Monday, Commissioner Michael Murphy said he had to "carefully consider a lot of things," including the impact on policing and government activity and the impact on the community, before implementing the curfew, which begins on Monday evening.

"From 10pm tonight until 6am, the confines between Anzac Hill, Shorts Crescent down to the hospital from the Stuart Highway, across to Leichhardt and Stock Terrace will be in the declared area," Murphy said.

Unlike the March curfew, this one will be for everyone, including adults.

"Anyone coming into the zone can be engaged by police and asked to leave, or alternatively they can be asked to stay if there is another disturbance, and they need to be contained for their own safety," Murphy said.

"A failure to abide to a request by police can lead to an offence and it can lead to an infringement notice or arrest, so please be mindful and be alive to the fact [that] between 10pm and 6am you can't come into the declared area unless it is for certain reasons."

In May, the NT government introduced new legislation to enable the easier implementation of curfews, describing it as a "common sense plan to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour".

NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler said the offending in the town had been "unacceptable," and argued the curfew will allow police to "get on top of the situation on the ground".

"This is exactly why my government passed curfew legislation in May. We want police to use the curfew powers when it's needed, and that time is right now," Lawler said.

"After the first Alice Springs youth curfew, we've seen how effective curfews can be as a circuit breaker. We believe a broader curfew for Alice Springs right now will have a similar effect."

The youth curfew in March was extended by almost a week to coincide with the end of the school holidays and Murphy said if he believed there was a need for an extension to the 72 hour curfew, he would be "writing to the minister about the reasons why I think that should occur".

"If there is a continuation of harmful conduct - which I hope there is not - we apply some measures now and use the community to help us [and] we should see a turnaround," Murphy said.

"If that continues and there's some behaviour that still concern[s] me, I can apply for a 72-hour [extension] for a different area or go to the minister for another seven days."

The alleged assault on the four off-duty officers was initially flagged as "20 male youths," but Murphy said it was understood that most were adult males.

Asked if a curfew on adults will be more difficult to enforce that the previous one in the town, which focussed on children and youths, Murphy said resourcing was a "challenge," but the aim was to "engage".

"What police do is deal with the public really well. That's what we're trained to do and whether they are adults or children, we will do our job," Murphy said.

"If they commit crimes, we'll address it where we have two. The primary area here discretion, communication, education and making a difference to avoid harms [from] occurring."

The curfew is taking place during NAIDOC week, and Murphy said it was "more important than ever" to get community support to help "solve longer-term" issues in the town, arguing "the answer is not in the criminal justice system, it's in the community and the leadership".

Asked if there would be a pausing of alcohol sales in the town over the curfew, Murphy said some of those decisions would be up to the government and some for police, but noted a shutdown of licensed venues was "an option we're exploring".

"We've got pretty stringent controls at the moment but if we can still see really massive impacts upon harm that are directly attributed to alcohol, we need to do something," he said.

"[Maybe not a] a total cessation but we are looking at some other options available to us."

Earlier on Monday, shadow Indigenous affairs spokesperson Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the town would "welcome" another curfew.

More to come.