Today’s post in this series – ‘In 1975 the Sex Discrimination Act came into Force at the end of the year. This led to the abolition of dedicated Policewomen’s Departments and female officers performing the same duties as male colleagues for the same rates of pay. It was also the year that the age at which you could join the police was lowered to 18 and a half years. With 903 officer vacancies the West Midlands Police was also finally awarded an ‘under-manning allowance’ in recognition of the difficulties the Force faced. (Picture courtesy of Express & Star Walsall – twenty-five years on) We would welcome recollections from 1974-1999.
