WORK OF POLICEWOMEN

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 129, 3 June 1922, Page 14

WORK OF POLICEWOMEN

Very soon after his appointment to office, the new Chief Commissioner of Police in Victoria (Mr. A. Nicholson) said that one of the first proposals lie intended to make to the Ministry.was that he be empowered to appoint two extra policewomen. He is appreciative of the work that has been done already by the two women now in the force, and sees possibilities of extending the scope of their work. He hopes to appoint a senior-policewoman and establish a specia! office for the work.

This fact (says the Melbourne Argus) lends interest to the indignation aroused amongst public women in- England by; the recommendation in the report of the Geddes Committee on possible retrenchment in Government Departments, that the metropolitan , policewomen patrols should be clone away with. At a meeting arranged by tho National Council of Women in London, described as crowded, enthusiastic, and unanimous, the speaks ers included .women prominent in public affairs,' and they were able to prove by facts and figures that to destroy this force would be an actual money lose to the nation oven in the first year. The record of work done by this band of one hundred ■ women last year showed that they had found temporary lodgings for 6465 girls whom they met stranded in London, they had placed 1131 girls in voluntary homes; assisted the police in the transport of depositions of 49,000 cases, cautioned 20,747 cases of girls loitering in tho 'streets, and 3393 loitering in cafes; reported over 8000 cases of improper conduct of one sort and another; and have assisted all the children charged with crime in the Courts'. It was pointed out also that for every case of conviction or caution which, is reported there are dozens of instances where the mere presence of a woman in uniform in enough fc» keep things straight. \