WOMEN POLICE

Waipa Post, Volume 47, Issue 3384, 24 October 1933, Page 3

WOMEN POLICE

APPOINTMENT TO THE C.I.D. SAME FOOTING AS MEN. After having served as detectives for a probationary period of twelve months, three members of the women police at Scotland Yard have been definitely appointed to the Criminal Investigation Department (says a London correspondent writing on Augsut 18). Their names are Detec-tive-Constables Stratton, Burn, and Ettridge. As an experiment they were allocated to Vine Street and Marlborough Street Police Stations, as it was believed that the services of plainclothes women officers were more frequently required in that district than elsewhere.

Women have frequently assisted the regular detective forces at Scotland Yard in cases where the authorities deemed it advisable to ask their help.

The present appointments may be regarded as a vindication of the contention that women might be used independently of men detectives and it is expected that other appointments will follow.

At present the strength of the women police in London is about 100 and it is expected that -in time women will be numbered among the students at the new Police Colelge. . Miss D. Peto, formerly of Liverpool, was appointed three years ago to control Scotland Yard’s women police, and her success was so marked that her temporary appointment has been extended.

In bygone days the idea of a woman, becoming a full-blown detective would have been laughed to scorn. But in one year these three protegees of Lord Trenchard have defeated the old prejudice. , A special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph writes:— The three women appointed have in a very real sense earned the distinction that has come to them.

Certainly no candidates for any position requiring first-rate mental and physical qualities coula have had a more gruelling training. Not only have they had to undergo the usual academic course pertaining to police work, but they have been obliged to go down to the dregs of society in London to study the psychology of the delinquent. Thieves’ rendezvous, doubtful night clubs, and all such centres became familiar to them. Indeed, it is known that one of the new officers became immensely popular in a quarter where very dangerous criminals foregathered. That centre no longer exists, arid its passing may be attributed to th.s officer, of whom it is said that she could charm herself into a den of lions.”

Women prisoners, who were always thought to be averse to talking to women officers, spoke more freely to the probationers than to male officers.

The new women officers are young and athletic, well equipped to hold their own in an emergency, and endowed with an intelligence and tact that must enable them to render the good service to the public which Lord Trenchard feels convinced they will be able to give. The Times says:—

At first when it was proposed to form a women’s section of the Metropolitan Police, the idea met with a good deal of opposition. When Lord Byng of Vimy became commissioner, however, the process began of reorganising every branch of Scotland Yard’s activities, and eventually Miss Dorothy Peto, who had had previous experience, was apopinted to put the womens’ section of the Police Force on a sound basis. For a long time there were many changes in personnel owing to the number who, either through personal disinclination or other causes, were found to be unsuitable fer the work. The experiment begun last year was closely watched by the authorities of Scotland Yard, and it is stated that the women who now become detectives have proved that they, can be employed wtih confidence in' almost every type of criminal detection. In particular, the contention that women criminals would treat women detectives with scant respect has proved to be without foundation.

Investigations in connection with traffic in dangerous drugs, shoplifting, raids on shops by motoring thieves, and handbag snatching aic but a few of the duties successfully carried out by women police, some of whom have acted as decoys when required to do so by their superiors. They have proved very useful, too, in discovering haunts favoured by women who are associated with gangs of criminals in the London area.