Boston has a street matron, Mrs. Thomas Tyler, an officer employed by the Florence Crittenton Mission, who goes about at night wherever girls are found in streets, parks, theaters, and cafés and gives help to them where it is needed. The shelter of the Mission is a valuable aid to her in her work. Mrs. Tyler is a private policewoman supplementing, not supplanting, other agencies that work with girls. The employment of women physicians in courts for women is a necessity strongly urged by women’s probation and other associations. In some courts they are already serving in that capacity. POLICEWOMEN From these various official positions occupied by women it was only a step to secure the appointment of women on the regular police force to aid in the protection of the young. This step was first taken in Los Angeles, California, when Mrs. Alice Stebbins Wells was placed upon the police staff. The present administration of Syracuse (1914) has appointed a woman as police officer as a result of a movement begun over a year ago by women and approved by the Chamber of Commerce. Mrs. Wells, the police officer of Los Angeles, aroused the club women of Syracuse to the advantages of such an official and later, when a moral survey of Syracuse was made under the chairmanship of Miss Arria Huntington, the advice of Mrs. Wells was more fully appreciated. The work of the policewoman will involve the training, tact and ability of a social worker and the women of Syracuse regard her as a constructive element in the city government. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the Women’s Political Union and the churches assisted in the movement to secure the policewoman. “The number of cities and towns which have placed women on the police force with full or partial power is increasing so rapidly that it is no longer possible to keep count. Chicago, of course, is the recent shining example. Within the past year San Francisco has changed its charter so as to admit women to the force without meeting the physical requirements which apply to men. Three women have already been appointed. Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota; Topeka, Kansas; Ottawa, Illinois; and Kansas City are other places which have recently intrusted police power to women.”[47] In Chicago, Mayor Harrison sent Mrs. Gertrude Howe Britton, superintendent of the Juvenile Protective Association and a member of the school board, to visit all the police stations of the city to instruct the regular force of policemen how best to protect and promote the welfare of the children on their beats. When one realizes the great number of arrests of children, one will appreciate that a considerable portion of the policeman’s time is concerned in the oversight of children. Under the caption, “Policewomen’s Efficiency in Danger,” _The Survey_ described the situation which prevailed in Chicago in the spring of 1914: