§ COLONEL SANDYSasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether he will be prepared shortly to recommend for the consideration of this House a complete scheme for the organization and better administering of the Metropolitan Police Force, including the building of proper police barracks at various tactical points in the Metropolis; and, whether, having in view the increasing audacity of the criminal classes, he will be prepared to recommend the formation of an efficient detective force, separate in administration from the remainder of the police, and composed of men specially qualified for the tracing and detection of crime?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr CHILDERS)The hon. and gallant Member may rest assured that I will lose no time in forwarding the inquiry I am about to make into the organization of the police, and in communicating my action upon it to the House. A detective force, such as the hon. and gallant Member describes, is already in existence, having been constituted subsequently to the Report of a Committee appointed to inquire into the detective system in 1877. But I must dispute altogether the hon. and gallant Member's assumption that the audacity of the criminal classes is increasing. On the contrary, they are, I am glad to say, from year to year diminishing in number, and are becoming much less formidable.