Talk:Royal Newfoundland Constabulary

Sorry to say...

...But the claim that the RNC is older than the Texas Ranger Division is wrong. That's not of my saying: a very small research has led me to the History page of the official RNC Association website, where this idea is confirmed. The following excerpt from that page appears clear enough to close the issue safely in favor of the TRs, in my humble opinion: The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) is the oldest police force in Canada, which has roots dating to 1729, and was reorganized in 1871 to become the Newfoundland Constabulary. This flagrantly contradicts the assertion made at the article. The banner of the Offical RNC website also states clearly: Est. 1871. You can claim otherwise, but the facts appear rather clear. Shauri Yes babe? 01:57, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Yes, the Texas Rangers are older but before 1874 they were a semi-military organization and not a true police force [1]. As such the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary are the first police in North America to be organised on a modern civil police basis. Jcmurphy 02:46, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

On the basis of that technical distinction, we could establish the following conclusions and reach an agreement as to the article's contents:

• the TRs are the oldest law enforcement agency in North America
• the RNC are the oldest police force and the second oldest law enforcement agency in North America

Does that sound good enough to you, Jc? - Shauri Yes babe? 02:55, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Excellent, the wording of the article is accurate now. I love it when a debate reachs an amiable and historically correct conclusion. Shauri Yes babe? 15:07, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

Hmmmm... according to article, the RNC became a civil police force in 1844, making it one year older than the NYPD, but still younger than the Boston Police Department and the Toronto Police Service. Also, the distinction between "semi-military" and civil police force is far from clear. The Mounties, for example, are a paramilitary in their organization, as were the RIC relative to the 1829 London Police. Robert Peel conceived the RIC along different lines because his London model wasn't suited for a colony, such as Ireland, Newfoundland, and Canada.Bobanny 16:06, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Numbers seem inflated

12,000 personell seems awfully large for a population the size of Newfoundland, especially when you consider that the majority of policing is done by the RCMP, not RNC. 12,000 would indicate that over 2% of the province's population are members of the RNC, which seems incredibly high. Perhaps some verification could be done on this statistic. The RCMP, which policies ALL of Canada (32 million) has only 16,000 members, after all.

_____

Remember that these numbers also include two cities in Labrador West, and also the two cities on the island of Newfoundland itself. The areas that the RNC have jurisdiction in on the island have 201,234 currently living there, and in Labrador they control three communities of Labrador city (population 7,744), Wabush (population 1,894) and Churchill Falls (population 645), as well the 71,700 square kilometres of surrounding wilderness area. If the numbers are inflated, it is not by much. Squadcar56 19:06, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Police forces with royal patronage

The statement that the RNC is on of only 6 police services with royal (specifically British) patronage is incorrect.

Without making too much effort I can come up with:

• Royal Canadian Mounted Police
• Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary
• Royal Grenada Police
• Royal Solomon Islands Police
• Royal Bahamas Police Force
• Royal Gibraltar Police
• Royal Falkland Islands Police
• The Royal Barbados Police
• Royal St. Lucia Police
• Royal Anguilla Police
• Royal Virgin Islands Police Force
• Royal Saint Vincent Police

You could also include the Royal Military Police and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (the PSNI "incorporates" the RUC, thus the Royal patronage of the RUC continues even if the word "Royal" is not used).

Its therefore obvious that there are lot more than 6 "Royal" police services. --Xorkl000 06:31, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

If there is no objection in the next couple of days I will remove the statement about the whole Royal thing, seems pretty clear that it is untrue.Dbrodbeck (talk) 12:34, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

RNC is not Provincial

I refer to the section: "The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) is the provincial police force of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. RNC is one of three provincial forces left in Canada. It also provides policing to the cities of St. John's, Corner Brook, Churchill Falls, and Labrador City."

The RNC is not a "provincial" force in comparison to the OPP and QPP. It *only* provides policing services to the major metropolitan areas (not 'also'), while the RCMP is responsible for the rest of the province. These facts are in the article, but are contradicted by the opening statement.209.128.8.150 (talk) 18:09, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Fleet

The sub-heading Fleet do not lend any information to the article; it's simply a listing of make and model of various automobiles. I suggest the section goes unless more pertinent information can be supplied, (i.e. year(s) employed, colours used, branding, number of units in fleet, plus any other useful information). --HJKeats (talk) 15:46, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Last force in North America to go armed?

Can it be reliably said that the RNC is the last public police force in North America whose members had been authorized to be armed while on duty? (Unless there are any left unarmed) - knoodelhed (talk) 06:12, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

I believe that it can - to my knowledge, there is no police service in North America that isn't routinely armed, and most Canadian police forces have been routinely armed from the get ReactionEquipment (talk) 22:21, 4 July 2022 (UTC)