Essex Police Cadets, 1934–1954
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X5803100109 |
| Published date | 01 January 1958 |
| Author | H. G. St. John |
| Date | 01 January 1958 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
52
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
have conducted criminology courses for police officers in various parts
of the country should confer with each other in order to compare
notes and plans for the future. Possibly they would agree that their
departments ought to be more selective when accepting police students,
insisting, perhaps, that they should have reached a certain standard of
education, for a student's ability is by no means always commensurate
with his ambition.
These departments might also be able to organise courses suitable
for youths between leaving school and joining the police service, in view
of the fact that the minimum age for the latter is 20 years.
Certainly, both as regards teaching and research the extramural
departments could, with adequate co-operation from the Police
authorities, proceed much further into that vast field to the fringes of
which their pioneer work in recent years has brought them. As one
tutor has aptly said: "Criminology as a subject of research is in its
adolescence; as a teaching subject in its infancy." So far as the police
are concerned the university extramural departments can do much to
bring it to a state of maturity in both these spheres.
Essex
Police
Cadets,
1934-1954
By
INSPECTOR
H. G.
ST.
JOHN,
Essex County Constabulary.
CIVILIAN S were first employed in the Essex County Constabulary
for clerical duties in 1923 following a Home
Office
direction in
1922 which urged police authorities to reduce their Regular establish-
ments by at least 5
%.
It
appears that this substitution of civilians for
regular policemen was one way of counteracting any such reduction.
But the idea of police cadets was first established, it seems, in 1934,
when consideration was being given to the filling of a vacancy for a
civilian clerk at Grays
and
it was reported to the Standing Joint
Committee that the Chief Constable had suggested that instead of an
adult (as heretofore) a youth whose intention it was to join the Force,
when older, should be appointed. This was agreed by the Committee;
but his salary was not to exceed
175.
6d.
per week! This sum was
not
exceeded, for, in September 1934, a youth aged 16 was duly taken on
at a salary of
155.
per week. His ambition to join the Regular Force
was fulfilled in 1937, but he resigned in 1948. The commencing salary,
by the way, for a youth of 15 years who joins the Essex Cadet Force
today, is £3
165.
9d. per week.
It
can be seen from the minutes of the Essex Standing Joint Com-
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