THE POLICEWOMAN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17949, 16 November 1918, Page 9

THE POLICEWOMAN.

Tho Gilbertian policeman once whimsically lamented that "a policeman's life is nob a happy one." Ono wonders, however, what social improvements may not have' been wrought in Jus promessionadl existence by tlie advent of his feminine counterpart, the policewoman. The feminine guardian of the peace, the " lady constable," is already a permanent institution, and in England sho is actually an integral part of the force. Her ranks swell visibly every year. Her duties increase with her enlarged experienceSchools are turning her out in numbers that barely suffice to meet tho demand, and tho scope for her professional activities is practically unlimited. But let it bo said in her justification that she has not sought to tread upon the toes of her professional mate, the masculine "Robert," but rather has endeavoured to make of herself his fitting complement; to extend the sphere of usefulness of tho profession; to introduce new and much wider powers of social utility. She does not disturb tho measured functions of the policeman's familiar beat, the fixed post, or the traffic control. She is armed with nothing more formidable than moral force. Sho does not even carry a truncheon. For she is not chosen for her brawn and muscle, and,is not called upon to 'chase an offender, or to lead him off as her lawful catch to the lockup. She leaves the masculine wrongdoer, generally speaking, to the policeman, and keeps tho peace along lines in whichlie failed to prove adequate or fitting, or which, a few years ago, were considered without his scope. She works in the towns and on the railways. She is to be found in tho factories and offices of tho Ministry of Munitions Department; she is under the Admiralty, ami she is working in co-operation with tho employees of tho Government-controlled firms. She supervises women employees, sho looks to the prevention of theft. She keeps her eyes upon woman's welfare everywhere, in the stations, in tho streets, in the trains and in the parks. She inspects places of amusement and women's lodging houses. ' Sho supervises children engaged in street trading. She takes depositions from women and children, and attends police courts on their behalf; indeed, there is hardly any investigation of a public character, with regard to persons of her sex, in which she does not interest herself.

The policewomen directly connected with the metropolitan forces of London differ from what are known as the Raid Patrols. The policewomen co-operate directly with the Metropolitan police in tho work of patrolling tho streets and tho parks in tho actual company of men constables on their different beats, whilst a further distinction is that they draw their pay from Scotland Yards, whereas Paid Patrols in the provincial towns, in some cases, receive it through a voluntary association- Tho Paid Patrol has been described as the free lance in policewomen's work, tapping at the door of public opinion. She develops her work as need and opportunity- arise. She not oillv undertakes a varietv of work on behalf of the police, but sho is also approached by the miltarv authorities, tiro health authorities,"'the National'Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and other organisations interested in public welfare. She often moves on to another town, and thus finds scope for talent, judgment and even pioneering instinct. Though we owe much of the woman policeman's development to the war, she is not. institutionally, the direct outcome of it, as the woman' groom, the postwoman, the woman gardener, the farmerette, the woman, chauffeur, or the girl 'bus conductor. Many of those workers may retire fnto the privacy of the home when the call of a "Teat national emergency is no longer heard. But, taken for all in all. the. policewoman and her fellow-labourers for the common welfare show, how wide and thorough is woman's conception of the dutios, responsibilities and opportunities of citizenship.—" Christian Science Monitor."