Sir, - Desmond Fennell may not be aware that in the 19th century and in the early part of the 20th, the number of police forces in England, Wales and Scotland was over 300. In Ireland up to 1922 there were two police forces. As Mr Fennell rightly says, there are now eight separate police forces in Scotland, where at one time there were over 70, when each little town had its own borough force, and each county/ shire had its own. Even now, in England there are such things as regional crime squads, serving a number of separate constabularies, in an effort to overcome the problems of multiplicity of forces.
One may well ask the question: why such a reduction in numbers? The answer is: for greater efficiency. At one time, city police chasing a vehicle for some breach of the law, had no more legal power than an ordinary citizen, once the culprit crossed the boundary into the county area. All that could be done was to ask the county force to take over. There were many such similar problems. The obvious solution was to reduce the number of separate forces. Even today, efforts are still being made to persuade the Home Secretary to go further in this direction.
The Dublin Metropolitan Police was amalgamated with the Garda Siochana in 1925, not from any political motive, but for greater efficiency. Even pre-1922, there were difficulties resulting from the DMP being separate from the RIC.
Would Desmond Fennell turn the clock back? - Yours, etc.,
F. T. Murphy, Old Quarry, Dalkey, Co. Dublin.