the New York Times given below is the first part of a long article which is in the form of an interview after this introduction:
Even when Mrs. Alice Stebbins Wells fishes about in her
bag and produces her policeman's star for verification one can
hardly believe that she is the famous first "policewoman" of
Los Angeles. Scarcely five feet in height, slender, with a
mild, almost timorous voice and a pair of very round blue
eyes, Mrs. Wells presents an appearance about as formidable
as that of a kitten. Yet she has been permanently appointed
as a regular member of the police force of a city of 400.000,
subject to the same regulations, vested with the same authority,
and under civil service, as any male member of Los Angeles'
bluecoat squad. She makes arrests and prefers charges
in the same way and with as much success as any policeman,
and is a very substantial vindication of the power of personality
in an institution where brute force and a six-foot stature
have formerly been thought to be indispensable prerequisites.
Here is what she says of a phase of police work:
"And do I carry weapons? No, indeed. That is something which I do not feel called upon to do. I am very firmly convinced that under the right conditions a policeman would not have to carry a weapon at all. But before the policeman can give up his gun and his stick, weapons must not be sold indiscriminately to citizens. The only reason now that a policeman requires a weapon is because the other fellow may have one, and the law must enforce its demands against all objection. It is a very sad commentary on our civilization that guns and brass knuckles are displayed openly for sale, and that almost the only restriction in our most careful communities is a provision for a license, which is easily obtained."
Mrs. Wells is the first woman to be appointed to a police force in any city of the United States. The woman detective, the police matron, the probation officer, the district nurse, are all places which have been filled by women, and were of course the forerunners of the policewoman. But while they were vested with partial police authority their power was greatly restricted along certain well-defined lines, and they did not work in recognized co-operation with the police department.
Before entering her work on the Los Angeles police force Mrs. Wells had been in active training as a social worker. The general attitude which she takes toward that stratum of
