Female detectives have been banned from joining an association for former Metropolitan Police CID officers. The decision to exclude women was condemned yesterday by the British Association of Women Police, as “archaic” and a retrograde step that belittled the role of women in policing. Female detectives have been banned from joining an association for former Metropolitan Police CID officers. The decision to exclude women was condemned yesterday by the British Association of Women Police, as “archaic” and a retrograde step that belittled the role of women in policing.
The Association of Ex-CID Officers of the Metropolitan Police, which was set up in 1950, voted to maintain its men-only status. The vote registered 220 who wanted to exclude women, 127 in favour of women joining and 127 who had no opinion.Michael Cookson, the association’s honorary secretary, told Police Review magazine: “Most of us are of a more senior age and very few of us have actually worked with women.”It was felt to be altogether more preferable to leave things just as they are … it’s nice to have a chaps’ day out and leave the wives at home.”The association’s stated objective is “to maintain the comradeship enjoyed in the CID”. Mr Cookson predicted women would be granted membership within the next five to 10 years.In recent years the CID has fought to change its macho image.

The Met has 534 women CID officers out of 4,084.Irene Divine, national co-ordinator of the women’s police association, which includes men, said: “We very much regret this archaic, outdated decision not to allow women officers to join, should they choose. It is sad that the role played by women in crime investigation in the 26 years since the Sex Discrimination Act has apparently been disregarded by this group. What are they afraid of?” Ms Divine said her group would back any women who challenged the Ex-CID association’s rules.Mr Cookson said the group did not fall foul of the Sex Discrimination Act because under current legislation an association which met at licensed premises instead of a clubhouse was free to decide on its own membership.A former inspector, Mary Williams, said she inquired about joining when she retired from the CID in 1998, but was refused. She said it was “quite a knockback” to be ineligible because she was a woman. During her career, Ms Williams worked as the only female officer in the Met’s 40-strong central drugs squad.

She said her colleagues would be appalled at the association’s behaviour.As part of the current national recruitment campaign, Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, is trying to encourage more women to join the police.. Nearly half of the frontline police officers who have been asked to provide tissue samples for the national DNA database have refused to take part because of concerns about invasion of privacy. Nearly half of the frontline police officers who have been asked to provide tissue samples for the national DNA database have refused to take part because of concerns about invasion of privacy.The DNA samples are needed so police attending a crime scene can be quickly eliminated from a criminal investigation. But their reluctance to take part is undermining attempts to include other innocent people in the database.Only 40,000 officers have given permission for their DNA fingerprints to be stored but nearly twice as many samples are needed for the scheme to work properly. The officers are told that their details will be added to an “entirely separate and discrete segment” of the national database. They are also being assured that their tissue samples will not be used to test for drugs or passed on to the Child Support Agency investigating cases of disputed paternity.The failure to reassure staff more than a year after the police elimination database was set up is an embarrassment to the Home Office which is spearheading a campaign to change the law so the DNA of innocent suspects interviewed by the police can be kept indefinitely.Only the DNA of about one million convicted criminals are stored at the national DNA database run by the Home Office’s Forensic Science Service, near Birmingham. Adding innocent suspects would triple the number of names.Civil liberties groups, senior scientific advisers and lawyers are concerned that mixing the personal details of criminals and innocent people sets a precedent that could infringe privacy rights.Helena Kennedy QC, a Labour peer and chairwoman of the Human Genetics Commission, will attempt to introduce additional safeguards to the Criminal Justice and Police Bill when it is debated in the House of Lords tomorrow.