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"Are they friends of yours?" said a policewoman to a couple of young fellows who had taken hold of two girls [in Leicester Square, London]This incident, related by Authur Gleason, in his recent book, Inside the British Isles -- 1917 illustrates the effective and altogether novel part played by the women police in England. Prior to the war, the policewoman was a rare figure in that country, and her duties were limited to certain small, special fields. There were no policewomen patrolling the streets. But war conditions brought about new perils to public safety, especially that of children bereft of parental control and that of young girls exposed to the allurement of the uniform and the prevailing patriotic excitement. The new dangers could not be fought by the established police organization, excellent though it was in most respects."How dare you!" said one of the men, quite furious. "Of course I know them; they are cousins."
"I am a wife of an officer," said the policewoman, "and as you are an officer, wearing the king's uniform, I take your word for it."
Ten minutes later the young officer overtook her and said: "They were not my cousins, and I thought you would like to know I am going home."
Under the leadership of Damer Dawson, now the chief officer in charge of the London women's police service, a new department was created in 1914, which from a handful of soon increased to a force of three hundred or more. They are provided with uniforms and perform patrol duties in the streets. Birmingham, a few weeks ago, appointed two such officers. Others are serving in London, Grantham, Bath, Hull, Folkestone, Wimbledon, Richmond, and in many of the new industrial centers where large numbers of women are employed on the manufacture of munitions.
In some of these factories, there are twenty, forty, and as many as 120 policewomen. They keep the gates, examine passports, prevent the introduction of matches and hairpins into explosive shops and the carrying of contraband. They watch the vicinities of these plants, the girls' hostels and the trains which take them to and from their homes.
The girls, Miss Dawson says, do not resent the watchfulness of these uniformed policewomen, but realize that they are there for their protection. In fact, the policewoman is more tolerant of the larks of high-spirited girls than the average sturdy policeman, who is apt to run them in for trivial offences.
In dealing with prostitution, the chief use of the woman police is the patrolling of the streets where soliciting is most prevalent and, as in the instance given, to arouse by their presence a sense of shame in the men and youths bent on pleasure of the wrong sort. They also cooperate with the army in keeping soldiers away from disorderly houses, and keep a watch over those poorer districts in the great cities where sudden increases of earnings through profitable employment in war work bring with them new perils of intermperance and immorality.
Still another field of activity in which the policewomen have proved themselves is the enforcement of the school attendance law, and of street-selling regulations for minors. They frequently visit the homes and effects by moral suasion improvements in these respects which petty fines in the police courts have been unable to bring about. Street gambling, smoking by boys, loitering forbidden by street ordinances, and thieving -- all these are evils which no mere bullying and prosecution seems to be able to eradicate; but they yield under the maternally suasive and yet authoritative control of these women.
During the Zeppelin raids, the policewomen have rendered splendid services in keeping order and maintaining quiet. They have, especially in London, already become accepted and trusted guardians of law and considerate behavior in public places and as such can never be replaced by men. It is expected that their number will increase rather than be reduced when peace returns, and with it a more normal public life.