Local Policewoman Finds Solution to Delinquency Cases in 'Adjustment'

Fictional accounts of the hair-raising heroics of a modern policewoman are all wrong, according to Miss Elizabeth Taylor, who packs a gun, but never uses it, in her role as the only woman on Cambridge's Crime Prevention Bureau.

Although she never wears a uniform, as do London's "bobbyettes," Miss Taylor has the same authority as her masculine counterparts. Hers has always been a specialized job, however, for earlier in her police career she investigated cases where children were the victims of parents' sexual troubles, situations that might have proved embarrassing for male members of the old vice squad.

An Office for Miss Taylor

Since the installation of the Bureau, however, the nature of Miss Taylor's labors have changed somewhat. Her headquarters have moved from Cambridge's pavements to her own home-like office, designed to make fearful youngsters feel comfortable.

Miss Taylor's present assertion that she is not so much a "law-enforcing as a protective and preventive agent--a social worker in the police department," is the characteristic attitude of the entire bureau, whose function, according to Lieutenant Thomas J. Stokes, Bureau chief, "is to correct by adjustment."

No longer are youthful first offenders whisked away to a foreboding reformatory. When a Cambridge policeman turns in a complaint card, the Crime Prevention Bureau, not the municipal court takes over. A "pre-court" session is held, and Miss Taylor and her co-workers probe for the causes of the child's mistakes.