Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(camp gay) a police officer, usu. male.

1998		Literary Rev. Dec. n.p.: The spectrum starts with invective (an unattractive woman could be a ‘thunder chicken’ or a ‘blind cobbler’s thumb’), becomes wittier, especially in the gayer reaches (’hilda handcuffs’, a policeman).
2003		Guardian 14 July 🌐 ‘A language that protected you and acted as a kind of “gaydar” was very useful,’ says Baker. ‘It was also a way of poking fun at that repressive society. Using feminised names like Hilda Handcuffs or Jennifer Justice for the police was a way of removing some of their power.’.
2010		W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 72: In the early 1960s in New Zealand Vivian Vice, Nelly-law, Dolly Handbag, Alice, Dora-D, Hilda-Handcuff, Lily-lunchbox, Jennifer-Justice, Hilda Box-rot, Petunia Pig, Tilly Tight-twat, and Cherie Cunstable, were familiar.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 293/2: Hilda Handcuffs the police.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 829: I could have got along without him introducing me as ‘my lad the Screaming Pansy’ [...] and calling Gordon [...] ‘Hilda Handcuffs’ - Gordon was only in the Prison Service for less than four years.