APPOINTMENT OF WOMEN POLICE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 157, 29 March 1941, Page 10

APPOINTMENT OF WOMEN POLICE

For a number of years the question of appointing women police in this country has been under discussion and consideration. It should by now have been fully explored, so the Prime Minister’s announcement on Wednesday that the selection of women for this work is proceeding no doubt means that a definite scheme of service has been drawn up. If in the opinion of competent authorities women police can be employed effectively in checking certain offences, and if certain special inquiries are likely to be made more competently or suitably by women than by men, it is proper that a women’s force should be established. Moreover, at tin’s time of increasing drain on the national manpower the employment of women police on routine duties not of a strenuous or dangerous character might lessen the calls on the regular Force and reduce, for the time being at least, the number of new male recruits required. Though untried in this country the policewoman is a familiar figure in many overseas cities. The women police of London have proved their worth, particularly in checking moral delinquency, and by their general efficiency and helpfulness have earned a high place in public esteem. The present is no occasion for unnecessary experiment in social service, or for needless phis items on the State payroll. But in view of disclosures in recent court cases an improvement in moral supervision seems to be necessary —and the use of women police in such a direction is no longer merely experimental. On the other hand it should be possible to offset the cost of the new service, at least in part, by a redistribution of duties which would permit a more economical use of the Force’s male personnel