EXTRA POLICE IN WATERFORD. (Hansard, 1 July 1889)

§ MR. P. J. POWER (Waterford, E.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, how many extra police are stationed in the County Waterford, and at what cost to the ratepayers; what is the number of police allotted to the County Waterford by the Police Regulations, and has the full number allowed by such regulations been employed in the county before a tax for extra police was imposed upon the ratepayers; is it the case that in English counties there is on an average only one policeman to every 1,250 people, and whether in Irish counties, with less ordinary crime, we have one policeman to every 330 people; with the view of ascertaining why the County Waterford has been, and is, charged with extra police, will he have the attention of the Constabulary Authorities drawn to a charge delivered by Judge Waters on 3rd January, 1888, in addressing the Quarter sessions Grand Jury, in which he used the following-language:— The amount of crime from the county and city investigated in this court during the year 1887 has been, I may say, insignificant. You know, I presume, that I am County Court Judge of two other counties, Cavan and Leitrim. These three counties represent a large area, inhabited by 332,616 people, and may be considered representative of the whole country. I have procured the last published statistics of the United Kingdom, and they show the number of committals in England and Wales were 13,856, which gives the rate of one committal to 1,911 people. The population of my three counties is 332,616, so that to make crime in these three counties equal to crime in England the number of committals should be 174, whereas they amount only to 114 (including Quarter Sessions and Assizes), so that our crime is only 63 per cent of the crime of England. In Scotland the committals were 2,535, which gives the proportion of one committal to every 1,473 people. In order that the proportion of our crime should equal that of Scotland the number of committals here should be 225, but they are only 114. I find the rate of convictions in England and Scotland nearly the same, 77 per cent of the committals, and, strange to say, the rate of convictions in Waterford is almost identical, differing only by an inconsiderable decimal. In Leitrim the rate of convictions is 82 per cent of the committals. Whether it is a fact that, at the period referred to in Judge Waters' address, 1149 which was before the passing of the Coercion Act of 1887, the ratepayers were called upon to pay for extra police; and, what now justifies the employment of extra police in the County Waterford?