The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary (RNC) is the provincial police service for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is one of three provincial police forces in Canada, alongside the Ontario Provincial Police and the Sûreté du Québec. Uniquely, the responsibility policing in Newfoundland and Labrador is not granted to municipalities — in Ontario and Quebec, the provincial police provide frontline police services only to extraordinarily small communities or at the request of a municipal council; in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Constabulary operates in all communities by default. Since 1949, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have provided police services in the province's rural interior, in place of the RNC. History The first police constables in Newfoundland and Labrador were appointed by Governor Henry Osborn to six separate judicial districts in 1729. In the 19th century, the RNC was modeled after the Royal Irish Constabulary with the secondment in 1844 of Timothy Mitchell to be Inspector General. The administration of police services was centralized under one Inspector and General Superintendent of Police in 1853. Legislation governing the Newfoundland Constabulary was passed by the House of Assembly in 1871. In January 1909, John J. Sullivan became the first Newfoundland-born police chief of the Constabulary, a post he held until September 1917. In 1935, the Newfoundland Commission of Government established the Newfoundland Ranger Force, a police service modelled on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, to serve rural parts of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Ranger Force replaced the Newfoundland Constabulary outside of the Avalon Peninsula, the Humber Arm (and in particular, the four communities that make up present-day Corner Brook), Grand Falls, and other built-up communities on the island. During World War II, the Newfoundland Constabulary provided police and investigative services to the foreign militaries stationed at St. John's, famously investigating the 1942 Knights of Columbus Hostel fire, a fatal structure fire believed to have been an arson attack. After Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada in 1949, the Ranger Force was disbanded and replaced by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which also replaced the Newfoundland Constabulary outside of the City of St. John's. In 1979, Queen Elizabeth II of Canada conferred a royal patronage on the Newfoundland Constabulary in recognition of its long history of service to Newfoundland and Labrador. The force subsequently changed its name to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary. The first women were sworn-in as constables in 1980. Between 1981