ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR: POLICING WOMEN Jude McCulloch Solicitor/Community Lawyer Flemington/Kensington Legal Service Flemington, Victoria THIS PAPER WILL EXAMINE THE NOTION OF POLICING, PROTECTION AND control. It will argue that increasing law enforcement equals increasing control of minority or disadvantaged groups, including women, along with the protection of existing privilege. Increasing Law Enforcement In the past decade and a half there has been a massive increase in the number of police and resources devoted to law enforcement, accompanied by an increase in police powers. In the twenty-year period between the mid-sixties and the mid-eighties state government spending on police increased 172 per cent as compared, for example, to only a 41 per cent increase for housing and community amenities (Mukherjee et al. 1990). While stringent economic conditions have led to large cutbacks in spending in areas such as education, police budgets have continued to be increased. The cost of maintaining police forces has increased sevenfold from $18 to $133 per Australian per year in the past sixteen years (Mukherjee & Dagger 1990). In the twelve years between 1973/74 and 1985/86 the number of police officers per thousand residents Australia wide increased from 1.8 to 2.3. In Victoria during the same period the number of police rose 37 per cent (Mukherjee et al. 1990). Still there is no indication that the growth in the size of police forces is set to stop. Victoria's tabloid newspaper, The Herald-Sun, continues to editorialise about the lack of police resources and numbers (The Herald-Sun 8 August 1991 p. 12). Senior police rarely make public statements without referring to lack of resources and the Liberal opposition has promised one thousand more police if it is elected at the next election (The Age 2 August 1991 p. 1). The Victoria Police Force's most recent annual report states that a public concern to be addressed is the lack of police in the community. In the recent past police in Victoria have gained greater power to fingerprint, take blood samples and detain people. The Police Complaints Authority, an independent body that reviewed police investigations of complaints against police and conducted