Let's Hear it for the Girls!

It was recently pointed out to me that up to now, Nottscops com is "all male" and on looking through it, I had to agree.

So let's hear it for the girls!

When I joined the Notts Force in 1974 the police were just beginning to wake up to the idea that female officers had the same powers as their male colleagues and, thanks to new legislation, were being paid the same too. However, not for a few years after then were they to be fully integrated into the force as a whole; there was still a separate Policewomen's Department and women worked different shift patterns to men, covering nights on a call-out basis.

Policewomen, (I use the word "policewomen" because that is what they were called ; male officers were never referred to as "policemen" as a rank), had their own collar numbers which ran alongside those of the men. Therefore they had to be WPC 123 because PC 123 already had that number. This system was changed in 1987 when all women had their numbers changed. So from that time onwards it was not possible to tell an officer's gender by their number.

Today, female Nottscops work with their male colleagues in all aspects of policing and rightly so. In the early 80s Yorkshire Television filmed a TV documentary series about Nottingham Police called "N Division". One of the episodes featured Bev Fahey (pictured left) who at that time was the only "Girl on Traffic"; which was the name given to the programme featuring Bev's duties while working at Nottingham Traffic Wing.

Elaine Collier in Control	Pc Wendy Townrow	Pc Bev Fahey
Answering the phone at Bestwood Police Station