Women Active As Part-Time Police

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30961, 18 January 1966, Page 2

Women Active As Part-Time Police

As a way of serving the community by doing a valuable part-time job. more and more women in Britain today are joining the Special Constabulary, established to assist the regular Police Force.

In trim, dark blue uniforms, for a few hours a month, each of the women share with police the varied duties necessary in a well-run society.

They may be asked to undertake crowd control and duty “on the beat,” but, like regular policewomen, it :s usual for them to specialise in work Wth woman, young people and children.

When a woman volunteers she is trained at her local police station. She learns whos who in the police force, how it is organised and how it works, what a policeman’s duties are, the powers of arrest and how to exercise them, outlines of the criminal and ' licensing laws, traffic regulations, court procedure, practical first aid and civil defence. Some part of the training, which usually takes about 12 sessions of two hours each followed by a few hours of “beat” duty, is devoted to practical exercises, mock trials, and staged accidents. The uniform is provided free, and the women can claim out-of-pocket expenses and, in cases of emergency calls to duty, for loss of wages.

What kind of woman volunteers for this work? Not, as might be expected, the hard, tough type, but young women from all kinds of professions —isecretaries, models, actresses among them, who feel they want to give part of their spare time to useful social work. They sign on for

a minimum three-year period, but can resign at any time with the consent erf the chief constable.