'Lady Cops' and 'Decoy Doras': Gender, Surveillance and the Construction of Urban Knowledge 1919–59

Abstract

Focusing on London's Metropolitan Police Force (the Met), this article examines women's location within the social and cultural geography of the city in terms of covert and overt policing practices. The role of women police officers – as figures of authority and agents of surveillance – is considered in relation to the dynamics of street-life, notions of performativity, and the gendering of space and identity. Whilst some studies of women's police work have stressed notions of confinement and restriction, this article considers the potential that both policing and the performance of femininity created for women to traverse city space, contesting and sometimes subverting assumptions about gender and respectability. Concentrating on the forty years between the initial appointment of women to the Met and the Street Offences Act of 1959 (which is often seen as taking prostitution 'off the streets'), the article also considers the ways in which women officers negotiated the sexual cultures of the West End. Uniform and undercover/plain-clothes duties relied on differing but related technologies of surveillance. As attested uniformed officers, women became part of the urban spectacle and a highly visible form of 'feminine' authority; the uniform gave women confidence and security as they moved into new environments. In addition to 'beat' duty, women were increasingly used for plain-clothes and undercover observations on suspected brothels, gambling joints and unlicensed drinking clubs. Women officers were taught to interpret the dress and physiognomy of others in relation to sets of cultural codes regarding class and status as well as gender. They also used this knowledge to adapt tlleir own appearance.