But firm foundations for cooperation between police departments and properly trained policewomen were laid at the twenty-ninth convention of the International Association of Police Chiefs in San Francisco in 1922, when a resolution covering the principles of women's service was unanimously adopted. The principles thus approved were those which have been affirmed almost yearly by the International Association of Policewomen and have been practiced in Washington, DC, for six years, to say nothing of other departments established more recently.

These approved principles are as follows:

1. The policewoman is a necessity to organized police departments.

2. Policewomen attached to the department shall be under the direct supervision of the Chief of Police as a unit in the department, and where there is a sufficient number, one of them shall be a ranking officer in the department.

3. Appointments to the position of policewomen in the department shall be made from the certified Civil Service lists -- that is, or course, wherever there is a Civil Service list.

4. Policewomen shall hold office during good behavior and efficient service.

5. The appointment of policewomen is for the purpose of carrying out a preventive and protective program for the community, that will include the social protection of women and children.

6. Requirements: The minimum standard below which educational qualifications may not fall should be as follows:
   • Graduation from a four years' course of a standard high school or the completion of at least fourteen college entrance units of study, and not less than two years' experience, recent and responsible, in systematic social service or education work; or

   • Graduation from a recognized school for trained nurses requiring residence of at least two years in a hospital giving thorough practical and theoretical training; or

   • The completion of at least seven college entrance units of study, or of two years' work in a standard high school, and not less than two years' responsible commercial work involving public contact and responsible commercial work involving public contact and responsibilities tending to qualify the applicant to perform the duties of the position, with the equivalent of the college education through experience, such as secretarial work.
7. The primary function of policewomen is to deal with all cases in which women and children are involved either as offenders or victims of offenses. Crimes by or against females, irrespective of age, and boys up to the age of twelve, should be the special responsibility of the policewomen. They should discover, investigate, and correct antisocial circumstances and conditions in individual cases, and in the community, deal socially and legally with all delinquent women and children, give or secure social treatment calculated to result in reform, supplement the work of policewomen in securing evidence and convictions in special cases that will aid in correcting evil conditions.

Has New York's partial failure been due to lack of interest on the part of Police Commissioner Richard E. Enright? It was he who said at the New York Woman's City Club on April 7 of this year that he agreed with Sir William Horwood of Scotland Yard in believing that women should not patrol because they are unsuited to the task and have not the necessary physical endurance. Both Sir William and Commissioner Enright see visions of women handling drunken men that blot out the primary duty of all good policewomen -- that of preventive protective service.

It is evident that English testimony as to the functions and success of policewomen has not been fully understood here. Commissioner Enright, for instance, said on the same occasion that Sir William had abolished the women patrols in London. Such is not the case, although Sir William desired to do so. All but twenty policewomen were dismissed in London in 1922, but the principle was saved through an appeal to the Home Secretary by the National Council of Women of Great Britain and Ireland, in which Viscountess Astor, Mrs. Wintringham, M.P., and other women of equal prominence are leaders. In June 1924 these women formed a deputation and, presented to the Home Secretary by Viscount Astor, appealed for immediate action to preserve and restore the women's force. The Secretary promised, in response, that the government would give the matter open-minded consideration, and named a committee to formulate a plan of future work and a budget.

Some further misunderstanding may have been brought about through the visit and addresses of Commandant Mary Allen of the British Women's Auxiliary Service. This organization is similar in its social service to the Salvation Army or the Church Relief of England; it is supported by voluntary contributions and is not to be confused with the official police force. Commandant Allen -- who herself wears voluntarily a cap with visor, coat to the knees, breeches, and puttees -- gave much of her time before American audiences to demonstrating and promoting the general adoption of a uniform for policewomen. American women feel that the uniform of the British policewoman is her biggest drawback. London policemen have stated that flagrant violations of the law by streetwalkers -- noted by visiting policewomen -- did not occur during the war when women in civilian dress were used to a large extend in checking this evil and in service in behalf of the girls. It is acknowledged that uniforms on a small part of the women's police unit would have value in large cities like London, New York, and Chicago. Experience indicates that the entire force should not be uniformed, and that in a small town or village the small force would certainly be less valuable if uniformed.

London is the only city in Europe, and Indianapolis in America, where deliberate effort has been made to destroy the woman's bureaus. The effort failed in London; in Indianapolis, unfortunately, the most complete bureau yet organized -- a force of thirty women in a city of 314,000 -- was completely scrapped. London, some provincial cities in Great Britain, Ireland, Holland, Germany and Austria began to use policewomen in the early days of the war, usually setting a woman who was an experienced social worker at the head of the woman's bureau. In Great Britain the policewomen first earned whole-time pay in 1916 when legislation made their salaries chargeable to police funds.

These European cities, barring London, might easily exchange programs with the best departments in American and find no acceptable difference. In Vienna and cities in Germany police work has been subjected to the same handicaps suffered by all social and educational enterprises since the war. Policewomen, with a patriotic devotion, have very generally been willing to continue until the state can again provide funds. Cities in Holland are susceptible to the post-war curtailment of support that prevails in all Europe but these women, too, are holding fast to their ideals and carrying on. The Dutch cities, bearing in mind the fundamental service of women police, have called them "Kinder Politie" or Children's Police. The women have their own headquarters so that no child or woman need be taken to a station house, and they operate in general along modern social lines.

In the United States, Detroit has a bureau of twenty-two women with a woman Deputy Commissioner as director. The bureau's satisfactory service was recognized by an amendment to the city charter to provide the director with this rank. The position includes responsibility for the detention home for women, and for girls over juvenile court age.

Policewomen of Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, and many other cities work under the supervision of policemen. Boston has its women in one unit. Its standards are too low; and the policewomen are excused at ten each night -- just when the patrols in other cities perform their best service. The service has not been extended since its inception and there is a general demand on the part of the women's organizations for raising its standards and for a trained social worker as director of the bureau. Chicago assigns its women to precincts. There are some excellent women in this service but they are hampered by the matrons, who secured legislation giving them rank as policewomen with qualifying by examination. St. Louis' male lieutenant in charge of the women's bureau deserves the respect of all good social workers for his understanding of the service and responsibility of policewomen. Nevertheless consistency would require that a trained woman should be given his position. It is hoped that he will receive higher rank as a reward and be permitted to instruct the policemen and to interpret to them the significance of the woman's bureau. Los Angeles has two divisions of policewomen. Pittsburgh has five women. In both cities the appointments are political. Wisconsin has enacted legislation authorizing the appointment of policewomen in all cities, and the state civil service commission has fixed excellent standards for their selections.

Many small towns and villages have one, two, three and four women. Among the cities doing excellent work are Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia; York, Lancaster and Scranton, Pennsylvania; Lowell, Lynn, Worcester, Springfield and Gloucester, Massachusetts; Rochester, New York; Pontiac, Michigan; Wichita, Kansas. City managers have given impetus to the demand for intelligent, trained policewomen and realize the great economic and social value that lies in preventive protective work.

The general plan in operation in Washington, D.C., is used in many other cities, with variations due to the number of women in the department. Washington has had the advantage of a training school for police officers in George Washington University. The manual for the District of Columbia Police Department gives instructions for the woman's bureau which may be summarized as follows:

To deal socially and legally with all delinquent children under seventeen years of age and all women of whatever age; to adopt any legal measures as may be necessary to correct and eradicate conditions tending to cause or contribute to any such delinquency; to deal with all matters relating to lost children and fugitives from parents, guardians, institutions, etc., and to conduct all correspondence, telegraphic or otherwise, in relation to such matters; to investigate and prepare for prosecution all cases of sex offenses by or against children under seventeen years of age and women of whatever age; to investigate all cases originating in the Woman's Bureau or reported by other branches in the Police Department; to make special investigations of neighborhood conditions, public dance halls, restaurants, hotels, rooming houses, skating rinks, and other places of public amusement; render assistance to precincts of the department in the prevention and detection of crime and to exercise such other functions as may be directed by the D.C. Commissioners or the Superintendent of Police. Patrol of streets, railroad stations, public comfort stations, restrooms in department stores, places of public assembly, including dance halls, skating rinks, moving pictures, theatres, etc. The Director of the Woman's Bureau is also in charge of the House of Detention and must be on call at all times to adjust such business as may be connected therewith.

For advancement of the policewoman's service American cities must thank first of all the women's organizations, such as the women's clubs of Boston which instituted in Simmons Collge a training school for police officers; the Massachusetts Civic Association which devoted its attention to the improvement of the New England policewoman's service; the General Federation of Women's Clubs which voted to advance the principles of the International Association of Policewomen and to assist in the selection of recruits for the service and in establishment of correct standards by the individual clubs in their communities; the Woman's City Club and the Women's Protective Association of Cleveland which secured an ordinance for the creation of a woman's bureau with thirty women and a trained woman director; the Chicago Juvenile Protective Association which aided the policewomen of Chicago and nearby cities by bringing up-to-date social methods to their attention, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which is working for the appointment of policewomen in the belief that their service will assist materially in raising moral standards. The American Social Hygiene Association has helped in financing the training courses for policewomen at the New York School of Social Work and George Washington University. In view of the fact that various local and state units of the League of Women Voters, and the national body itself, have heretofore supported policewomen in their preventive protective service, and have looked forward to socializing police work in general, it is difficult to understand why the league's committee on social hygiene, in the program for 1924-25, states that "police and probation officers at best are only salvage workers." Such a statement is disheartening to those of us who are struggling to bring police departments to a realization of their opportunity.

The future of the service, of course, depends quite as truly as in the case of policemen on the integrity and wisdom of the city's personnel policy. Appointment to the woman's bureau must not be through of as a convenient substitute for a pension to the widow of a policeman, as is sometimes the case. The personnel of the District of Columbia bureau is safeguarded by the merit system under the United States Civil Service. The work in Detroit, Washington and a number of other cities is on a casework basis; in both Detroit and Washington the directors are graduates of recognized schools of social service and have been long in the field.

Yet too much weight must not be placed on the possibility of social treatment by policewomen, as Mrs. Hamilton, for instance, seems to do in her book. Not one of the groups in preventive protective work -- police, probation authorities, or private agency -- is able to cover adequately the needs of any city or village, but where trained social workers are employed as policewomen, they should make the preliminary investigation in all their cases and should decide to what agency they shall be referred for treatment. Common sense should rule in the selection of particular problems and only such cases should be treated by the police as can be adjusted by no other agency in the community. For the time being, woman's bureau must lean heavily on all relevant private social agencies but someday there will be enough policewomen with educational background, training and experience for all-round case work performance.

The social worker as a policewoman is one of the many manifestations of the transition from private social work to government responsibility for public welfare.