Women Police for Chicago.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 1, 6 July 1910, Page 60

Women Police for Chicago.

NO MORE BAD BOYS. New Zealand has up to now held the record for political and social experiments. But it isn't going to hold it. Chicago means to have women police—at least, so say the American papers. “The Chicago police department can handle the grown-up wrongdoer, the avowed criminal, and others of that brand. But it cannot handle the kids. A kid, boy or girl, is harder to handle than the grown-ups. They are harder Jo catch, harder to take care of. The (police department cannot do what should be done for delinquent boys and girls. It jran’t. Only one kind of police can do it—women police. Women are made to

handle kids. It’s time for them to step in where the police fail.” With these few words, Capt. Patrick J. J larding makes the new suggestion for police work in Chicago. He advocates a volunteer feminine police force to supplement the work of the department. He informs the women of the city thr t they have before them the chance of a lifetime .to help make the city good. The chance doesn’t involve suffrage or the wet or dry question, or any of the other problems at present big in the

public eye. Captain Harding says that the biggest chance for good work in the realm of womanhood is for good women to “police'’ the boys and girls of their immediate neighbourhoods. SAVING CHILDREN WOMAN’S WORK. ’’The way to stop evil is to stop it before it begins,” says the captain. “The

department is efficient against the criminal, but every man in it knows that it is not doing what could and should be done in the way of suppressing evil before it begins—by saving delinquent girls and boys. That’s work for women, and they’ve got a great chance to do a great, good work in Chicago to-day. WOMEN KNOW BETTER THAN MEN why girls go wrong, and better than men they know how to help them and keep them from it. Among the poor most of the delinquencies of girls are due to drinking on the part of parents and general carelessness in the home, absolute lack of teaching and training along the right lines, and cruel stepmothers. Some parents aren't fit to bring up children; others merely won’t watch their children close enough. "Every neighbourhood has its cases of delinquency, of girls and boys going wrong; and every one of these neighbourhoods has in it some GOOD, STRONG, INTELLIGENT WOMAN who could stop a lot of this badness if she would only try. “My suggestion is this: That these women get together and apportion the city among themselves in precincts, something after the manner of the police. Let each woman take a precinct and watch over it, as an officer watches over a beat. The precinct may be so small that the ‘policewoman’ will be able to keep an eye on every girl in it without much work or trouble. Lei them watch the girls and boys, see how they behave, and note when one shows any signs of leaning toward the road that leads to ruin. A woman can see it quicker than a man, and she can do the right thing much easier the better. The good that could be done in this way is incalculable.”

STEP-CHILDREN FIRST CARE. If Capt. Harding’s suggestion is followed, Chicago may enjoy the unique spectacle of its bad boys and girls being treated in a firm, but motherly, manner

by a special neighbourhood policewoman. Capt. Harding says that the children unfortunate enough to have stepmothers should be watched first of all. It will thereby be the policewoman’s first duty to investigate the stepmothers of her

neighbourhood. Just how this will work out it is hard to even attempt to guess. Stepmothers, like any other housewives, are apt to resent anybody meddling with their home affairs, especially when the meddler is a woman. “Get out of my house, you impudent young thing!” mildly replied one of these “mothers” when a reporter- asked her opinion of the neighbourhood policewoman idea. “And let me tell you this, and get it straight; if any woman eomes messing around here trying to tell me how to do my duty, A ROLLING PIN ON THE COIFFURE is the thing that’ll be eoming to her. I don't mind a policeman, but another woman! Well, I should say not!” Further investigation of the idea led to an interview with “Slippery Eddie,” aged 15, in his favourite hangout over near “deh tracks.” EDDY STRONG AGAINST ’EM. “Nix on dat woman cop game, guy,” said Eddie, dexterously “shooting the butt” that the reporter had dropped. “Slip me a light, boh, and I’ll wise you up. Naw, 1 ain’t fer that woman game, nohow-. Y’see, it’s dis w-ay; you cari diteh a cop every time you get the glim on him. Y’know when you see a cop, that’s the signal for you to blow. Every time I see Dorgan's front blow down to this end of the beat, it’s me for a hop, skip, and a jump behind der box cars till he’s past. “But suppose a woman comes along. ‘Come here, little boy,’ says she, and you speed up to her thinking she’s going to slip you deh price of a can for running an errand. Den she takes you by deh ear: cop game. We’re too scart of our own mothers fer dat to make no hit wit’ us.” Perhaps that’s the best reason why Capt. Harding’s suggestion is worth consideration.