Metropolitan Uni-Sex
| Published date | 01 July 1973 |
| Author | Shirley Becke |
| Date | 01 July 1973 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7304600310 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
SHIRLEY
BECKE,
Q.P.M.
Commander,
Metropolitan Police
METROPOLITAN UNI-SEX
"What's all this nonsense about integration?" said a chief con-
stable to me as we watched a National First Aid Competition. My
social sense told me it was neither the time nor the occasion to try
and tell him. Yet he was interested in what the Metropolitan Police
are trying to do and the fact that large departments of women
police will be one of the results of the new metropolitan forces is
making a number of senior officers look with a good deal of interest
at what is going on in London.
So I decided that, too early as it clearly is to form judgments,
there are many police officers who are sufficiently interested to
want to know how things are going and exactly what we are trying
to do. An article in this Journal gives me an opportunity to deal
with the problems and plans in a serious way for an informed
readership.
As We Were - Constables
The woman constable rank in the Metropolitan Police has been
integrated in many ways for a long time, but there has been a
dual control - by men and women. The work done by women
constables has been firmly under the control of the divisional
commanders and through them delegated to sub-divisional chief
superintendents and unit inspectors. However, the women inspec-
tors and women sergeants supervised much of the day to day
work and the woman commander arranged postings and transfers
and did the personnel work. The type of work done by constables
has only been limited by the number of women available to do
the jobs.
The women were specifically trained to perform certain tasks
with children and young persons and with women. On divisions
they did any other police work if there was time after dealing
with their specialist work.
It
was noticeable that the feeling of
being an integral part of the station varied very much from place
to place. A number of specialist branches and departments were
keen to have women constables and the scope of work open to
them widened to include Traffic Accident Prevention Units, Special
Patrol Groups, Dog Handling, Traffic, and in the C.LD. as well
as divisional work, Special Branch. Fraud Squad. the Flying Squad.
July
1973
274
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