The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-04-12
Women Police
Are Needed To
Safeguard Girls

Grouise deKoven Bowen, President,
Juvenile Protective Association, Chi
cago.)
Exclusive Service The Survey Press
Bureau)
In all of our large cities thousands
of young people, weary from their
monotonous work in shop or factory,
seeL the streets in the evening i'm
periously asserting their right to
p1eaure. Business enterprise has taxi
en- advantage of this natural desire
for recr cation and CONNER cialized
amuSementS have sprung up on all
sides ready to cater to every taste of
this childish multitude. Penny ar
cades, slot machines, moving picture
shows, cheap theatres, amusement
parks and dance halls are all attempt
ing to lure children with every device
known to modern advertising. Young
people are thus without protection
and expose ed to temptation at the very
moment when they are least able to
Withstand it,
Many students of municipal affairs
believe that every large city should
have morals police, of whom certain
number should be women, If it would
properly protect young girls for
whose unwary feet so many pitfalls
are spread, if it would deal adequate
ly with prostitution-that grave men
ace to health and morals.
We need women police in the thea
tres of every city to watch the girls
who attend these entertainments and
accept the invitations of young men
offered with disreputajb1e Intentions. In
the majority of cheap theaters the
moving pictures are shown in a dim
light and the danger to young people
has been shifted from the stage to the
auditorium. The darkened room af-
fords opportunity for familiarity and
there should be women police to see
that conventionalities and decencies
are observed
There should be women police in
our dance halls-the happy hunting
ground Of the white slave trader-to
watch the girls and also the boys, to
warn the girls when they are seen
taking too much liquor and to watch
that if intoxicated they are not ac-
men who have piled them with liquor
for Illicit purposes. They should also
see that young ursophtsttcated boys
are not victimized by professional
prostitutes who take advantage of in
experienced youths who come to the
city for the first time and visit the
dance halls to stsee the sights
Women police should be stationed
on pleasure boats and at bathing
beaches and should ever be on the
alert for conditions which demoralize
children We need women police in
our amusement parks to mingle with
the crowds at the gates and to save
young girls from accepting invitations
from men who hope to be repaid la
ter in the evening. We need women
police in such places to follow girls
who are seen going to lonely parts
OF the parks accompanied by young
men. In fact, we need women po-
lice to mother the girls in all pub
lie places where the danger to young
people is great.
Tn o,1r station T7ofJsAs wa should |
have women police in whose charge
girls should be placed. Women po- |
lice could accompany the girls to trial |
and be with them when they are sub |
Jected to harassing questions often |
put to them by attorneys. And wo-
men police should accompany girls to |
the institutions to which they are COM |
mitted by the court. The work Of the |
woman police officer would not be |
very different from that of the wo-
man probation officer. The juvenile |
court officers investigate homes and
neigh borhoods, watch their wards to |
see that they attend school or are at
work, and take charge of children af-
ter they have become delinquent. It
would be only one more step, but one
needed, to have women po-
lice who would lessen the work of the
proba ton officers by carefully watching
for those causes which lead children
into the courts, by reporting these
u I110 PAOPSI dOI1HOI1l A0S
and by carefully supervising all p1a-
ces of amusement
Women truant officers attached to
the compulsory education department.
the woman adult probation officers
connected with the municipal courts,
the women factory inspectors the wo-
men sanitary inspectors of the health
department. the women school nurses,
he women supplied by the Travellers
Aid Association, the officers of the Ju-
venile Protective Association and all
other officers paid by private organi-
cations are doing valiant work for the
young people Of our cities. But we
2znectallv nAad the police power which