Women Police

Southland Times, Issue 22218, 10 January 1934, Page 3

Women Police

Women Police are much discussed. Here are some interesting tributes which have been paid the women police in different cities in England and they are an indication of their popularity and good work. A high police official in Birmingham stated that women police had successfully carried out many duties which could not have been performed by the ordinary constables. “Amongst the women and girls of the city the women police are held in high esteem and confidence is given to the women police which is not even extended to their own relatives. Much of their work is of quite a delicate nature, and involves inquiries which only a woman can adequately investigate.” When the sergeant of women police, Mrs Miles, presented her report to the Watch Committee, a member spoke of the great value to the city of the work done by the policewomen, and suggested that two more should be appointed. When speaking at a meeting in Leicester, Sir Jonathan North said he would like the city to have more women police, as there were certain duties they could do much better than men. They had one woman police officer and hex - work had been a great success.

Two policewomen in Nottingham were congratulated by the bench recently on their smartness in detecting a shoplifter who was described as “the cleverest shoplifter in this city, and one of the cleverest in the country.” At the conclusion of the case the policewomen were called back to the witness box and were congratulated on the way in which they had given evidence. The aiderman said that he wished every police officer would give evidence as clearly as they had done. The Bishop of Chichester, speaking at the annual meeting of the Chichester Diocesan Purity Association (Hastings Branch) said: “I also see the need of an even closer co-operation between civic authorities and the Christian communities by the provision of civic trained workers like women police.” When Mr Cecil Whitely, K.C., Recorder of Southend, spoke to the women patrols on the law as it affected women, he said that there was an enormous opportunity for the women patrols to intervene when a woman was about to bring herself within the reach of the criminal law, and in that respect the work was valuable. All these eulogistic remarks concerning the work and value of the women police already in office should influence reticent authoritative bodies to seriously consider appointment of women to their police forces. Among small items of news of women police in the ‘Policewomen’s Review’ we see that two policewomen are to be appointed at Walsall (England) where until now only one has been employed. From the same source is announced the retirement of Mrs Mary Harvey a policewoman of Baltimore (U.S.A.) after eighteen years’ service. The Baltimore social workers gave her a farewell luncheon, at which she was presented with a gold badge by the Police Commissioner.