WOMEN POLICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 293, 2 March 1928, Page 16

WOMEN POLICE

PLEA OF DEPUTATION MINISTER GIVES PROMISE Press Association. WELLINGTON, Thursday, i A deputation from the National Council of Women waited on the Minister of Justice, Hon. P. J. Rolleston, 1 and the Commissioner of Police, Mr. ! Mcllveney, to-day, to put before them I the subject cf women police. Mrs. H. Smith, president, said they | had recently learned that there were i two police matrons in Auckland. The I reasons for urging the appointment of policewomen were that police matrons i could not perform all the duties | scheduled for them. The Minister gave the deputation a very sympathetic hearing. He said i they were contemplating appointing i more wpgjiyj. was no* considered

possible to give the same status to women as to men because they could not perform the same duties. Commissioner* Mcllveney read extracts from the reports of the police matrons, showing they had escorted prisoners, helped women and children on railway stations and boats, patrolled parks and playgrounds, and attended prisoners. He said some of those appointed were widows of police officers who had had experience in the country at small stations. The Minister promised consideration of a request regarding the name and status of the women so employed, and said he would look into the que;?- ! tion of their taking the oath, *