The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1915-05-18
POLICEWOMEN POLICY
STRONGLY FAVORED
Mrs. Alice Stebbins Wells of Los Angeles
Addressed National Conference
of Charities and Corrections.

! Baltimore, Nd, May ls.--A police
woman, Mrs. Alice Stebbins Wells, o
Los Angeles, Cal. was given close at
ltention by special section Of the ma
Itional conference of charities and correc
ton here to-day, when she told of pc
Ilicewomen's work.
For long time past, she said, the
woman policeman has been Pigment
of the imagination, held up to ridicule
as the acme of the absurd and impossi-
BILE, but though the last echo of derision
still reverberates, there has grown a po-
licewoman movement as great in strength
and size as any recent humanitarian
movement has attained in equal time.
As the latest list of cities which have
added regular policewomen as an in
tegral part of the police department for
outside work, she named Chicago, as
leading with 20; Los Angeles, Balti-
more and Seattle with five each; San
Francisco and st, Paul, three each; To-
peka, Minneapolis. Dayton and Toronto,
two each; Vancouver, Fargo, Grand
Forks, Rochester, n. Y, Ottawa, Aurora,
San Antonio, Syracuse, Denver, Muncie,
Colorado Springs, Superior, jamestown,
Fort Wayne, Ind, Racine, Wis. and
Phoenix, Ariz., one each. She believed
that Sioux City, Ia, Beatrice and Oma
ha, Neb., Boston and Salem, Mass, Bel
bingham, Wash, and Ithaca, n y, were
to be included in the list and she named
Poughkeepsie, n. Y, and Des Moines,
la. as places where poicewoman was
paid from private funds, with approval
of the chief In addition there were nu-
merous cities which employed police
matrons.
She found upon investigation that the
United States led in this departure, for
Notwithstanding reports of the employ
ment of policewomen in foreign countries
she had been unable to learn that they
were officially employed abroad except
in Norway; and in England in volun-
tary way.
The need Of women on the police force
had arisen, she said, from the fact that
industrial and social energy no longer
conferred in the home, "but has given us
an age in which men, women and chill
dren, eat, sleep, work and play together
as never before in the worlds history"
Mrs. Wells was the first woman po
llcewoman in Los Angeles, the post be-
ing created upon her initiative II had
charge OF this work." she said, "and
know two things: That girls and WON
en- in trouble have a right to the SYM
pathetic help of women officers, and that
men officers have right to exemption
from what may be constant tempta-
tion to the weak, and from enforced and
association with those who,
il resentful, may cast a cloud upon the
reputation of the most exemplary. The |
best officers are the most reluctant to
alone the handling of girls. |
and will sometimes resign in preference"
Mrs Wells told how the policewoman's |
work took her into the home TO talk to |
mother and daughter as no man could
hope TO do, and of numerous other police
in which women engaged.
II would not give the impression" she
said that the policewoman's work is
silver lining or an ornamental fringe
10 the very dark clouds of law enforce
nent for which a policeman stands in the
average mind. She is an integral part
u the department and stands for law
but her largest and best
work is TO prevent, for the securing Of
obedience to law is the very best form
u law enforcement
docs the policewoman make arrests
i the question asked. Indeed she does
,ut as few as possible, and those in
.eeping with the spirit Of the work. She
'oes not try TO do the traditional work
# the policeman on the street, but when
girl Is 10 brought in and held for any
eason. IL is right for the policewoman
o 90 and bring her in. If she has TO
ummon 20 court the proprietor Of a
lace OF amusement, she does so. These
onstitute arrests, yet are no more I
pectacular or unwomanly than the work
ally performed by other business and !
Professional women"
Concluding with an advocacy Of the
xtension OF state police. Mrs. Wells :
~ still further work for policewomen.
De believed they would some day be
exchanged between the large
tics 81 any one state. travelling from !.
ne 10 the other. iHcoguito fashion, and
b. able % reveal in the strange cities
a ftrFfo unsuartssffa1 eandffious