WOMEN AS POLICE.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1371, 24 March 1923, Page 6

WOMEN AS POLICE.

WORK IN WASHINGTON. Some ,of the services that are performed by policewomen in Washington. who work in plain clothes, were described in a recent interview with a representative of the London Observer by Mrs Mina Van Winkle, head of the Women’s Bureau of the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, who was visiting London and was on her way to the Continent to study the work of policewomen in Europe. The Washington Bureau, Mrs Van Winkle explained, was formed live years ago, after the chief of police had studied the system in London. “It was the only one in the United States at that time,” she said, “which was voluntarily established by the local municipal authority, and on the suggestion of the chief of police himself, who believed it would add to the efficiency of the Department. Policewomen in other cities—and there are three hundred cities now where they have them —have been appointed as the result of the efforts of the women’s clubs and organisations to get their services accepted by the municipal governments. “In Washington our work is very largely preventive and protective. We have the same powers of arrest that men have, and we are their equals in everything; we have to accept the same discipline, and we enjoy the same privileges.”

To illustrate bow the women work with the men, Mrs Van Winkle mentioned that the night before she left for Europe she was herself the highest officer at a raid on a cabaret, being in charge of two other policewomen and eight or ten policemen. They went in and “cleaned the place up." Shoplifting. There are now twenty policewomen in Washington, who not only patrol the streets with the object: of preventing and detecting crime. Imt also have charge of a house of detention for offenders awaiting trial. One of their duties also is to put women in the shops to arrest shoplifters. Last year as many as 400 were arrested, including a large number of girls. The alluring way in which the shops display their goods is to some extent, one gathered, responsible for offences on this considerable scale, but they have a more 'lenient way in Washington with ladies who g,o to the sales and steal the goods than that which Is adopted in London. There they are allowed, without the ordeal of a trial in court, to make complete restitution. and are placed .on voluntary probation. This method is so successful that it is a very rare thing to find any repetition of the offence. Many of these shoplifters are members of first class families. The case was mentioned of a girl who stole six pairs of long white gloves, at twelve dollars a pair, who could quite well have bought them, and also that of a woman who has entertained diplomatists, but stole little things from a shop for servants’ wear. Offences Against Children. The work, perhaps, of the greatest value that has been performed by the Washington policewomen is that of protecting children from men with evil intentions. Women can devote more time to work of this delicate and important character than men, Mrs Van Winkle pointed out, and her experience shows that the children themselves will not give men the information they give to women. “And that,” she said, “works in two ways; it works for the conviction of the man who ill-uses a child and it works for the reformation of the child herself.” One man who was brought to justice through the efforts of the policewomen in Washington has been sentenced to thirty years’ imprisonment for offences against a child and another is in prison for ten years. The number of policewomen throughout America to-day exceeds a thousand. “The demand is growing so rapidly that it is difficult to provide women who have the necessary training for the work. And it is not every woman who is capable of doing good work who regards the position of a policewoman as the most alluring in the world. Often she would rather take less money in some other service. But we think that in police service lies the greatest opportunity for the social worker. “In Washington we do not wear uniform; we think we can do better work without, if a child of mine got into trouble I should prefer a plain clothes policewoman to take her through the streets than one in uniform. On my way to London I visited Dublin. The policewomen there do not wear uniforms. And I do not know of any policewomen in America who wear it; there may be some who do, but I have no knowledge of them. “In some cases, no doubt, uniform has a definite value. People recognising a policewoman would come to her to give information. But there are many things a policewoman must do that would be resented by the average citizen if she attempted to do them in uniform. A policewoman cannot do good preventive work unless she is in plain clothes.