Londonderry Borough Police

Historically, policing in Ireland had been carried out by a town watch. By the 1830s in County Londonderry, the watch was posted so irregularly that citizens resorted to manning the watch themselves or hiring their own night watchmen. In 1832, the Londonderry Corporation created a Policing Committee of thirteen constables, but this was later deemed inadequate as the city expanded beyond the committee's capacity. In 1848, the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland passed a private bill, the Londonderry Improvement Act 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. cxli), which granted the Londonderry Corporation the power to raise its own police force. This initially consisted of one inspector, one chief constable, one corporal and thirteen constables. Gradually policing in Ireland was centralised under the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) except for the Londonderry Borough Police, Belfast Borough Police and the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP), which each retained their independence due to their statutory status. == Disbanding ==

On 28 April 1869, Prince Arthur (later created Duke of Connaught and Strathearn) visited Derry, where a Catholic reportedly waved a flag bearing a harp with no crown and shouted for an "Irish Republic". Members of the Protestant Apprentice Boys of Derry were angered by this, considering it a deliberate insult to the monarchy. A subsequent Commission of Inquiry ordered by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland found that the Londonderry Borough Police were inadequate to their task: it had only 38 officers and, being majority-Protestant, was distrusted by Catholics. The inquiry made the recommendation to "substitute it for a more efficient force". The area previously policed by the Londonderry Borough Police would become a separate police district of the RIC and provided that there would be 45 police constables in addition to the 38 from the Londonderry Borough Police. ==References==