WOMEN DETECTIVES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 240, 7 July 1931, Page 11

WOMEN DETECTIVES

Scotland Yard Move reorganisation plan Scotland Yard has at last capitulated to the feminist movement. Women police are now being trained in the intricate work of crime detection, and the “Sunday Dispatch” learns that it is Lord Byng’s intention to transfer them to the Criminal Investigation Department as part of his 1931 reorganisation scheme. These new detectives are being recruited from the ranks of the existing women police, and experienced officers who know something of their work have been surprised by their aptitude and efficiency. Before the year is out the Metropolitan Police will have in its ranks about 25 fully trained women detectives with the same status as the men of the C.I.D. They will wear plain clothes' and perform precisely the same duties as their male colleagues. It is probable that each division will, have its woman detective, and that headquarters and the West End stations will have a woman detective attached to meet the particular requirements of the Central London area.

Acting solely under secret orders from Lord Byng and the Yard chiefs, nnkown to the uniform police or C.1.D., women have already proved their worth in helping to clean up London’s night clubs. . . ; .

Disguised as habitues of the underworld and frequently feigning drunkenness, women police have collected a mass of information which has largely contributed to the success of Lord Byng’s campaign in the West End. The achievement of these women officers has convinced the Commissioner that women detectives will add to the thoroughness of Scotland Yard in detecting crime. In dealing with experts in the art of shoplifting, women wha live by fraud and blackmail and women receivers, the. women detectives will have unique opportunities.

Thejr introduction will doubtless handicap those crooks whose life-long criminal activities have enabled them to make the "acquaintance” of most of the men detectives.