Description

This female officer’s winter uniform was officially introduced in 1987 and was replaced by the fourth generation in 1994. During the 1970s, the proportion of female police officers in the Force increased considerably. Female police officers accounted for 10% of the Force’s manpower in 1976. In view of the increasing importance of female officers, the Force began to explore the design of more comfortable, easily managed and fashionable winter and summer uniforms for female officers.

The uniform consists of a dark blue tunic with two chest pockets, a grey-blue shirt (for Constables and Sergeants) or white shirt (for Station Sergeants and Inspectors and above), a straight-fitting half-skirt in the same colour, a scarf with stripes in dark purple-red, blue, grey-white and black, a roll-brimmed hat, black stockings and a pair of 3.8 cm-high black leather shoes. The main design test with this uniform was the hat. The challenge was to create a distinctive but not overly masculine hat. The newly designed female police hat, which is still in use today, is a roll-brimmed hat with a dark purple-red, blue, grey-white and black ribbon.

Although the uniform has a tunic top, it had only two chest pockets for keeping personal belongings. The design was not very practical, and the cloth belt was unable to support heavy equipment. The problem of a lack of space to store items was not addressed by this uniform.

In the past, female officers wore black lanyards which were attached to the police whistle in their left breast pocket when on duty. The uniform on display is of the rank of Station Sergeant, with the collar decorated with lapel pins. The silver buttons on the jacket are embossed with the Queen’s crown, with large buttons in the middle row, while the silver buttons on the breast pockets are smaller. The female officer had to ensure that the crown on the silver button pointed upwards. Compared with the current police uniforms, the female police uniform in the late 1980s was not convenient for work. The current police uniform combines six design concepts: uniformity, gender-neutrality, practicality, layering, comfort and safety. The cost of changing the uniforms was funded by the Force’s Saving and Invest Account in order to obviate the need to seek funding from the Government.