Why were the police unable to catch Jack the Ripper?

Another reason the police weren't able to catch Jack the Ripper was that the amount of technology available at the time limited to the police only being able to catch him in the act as no forensic technology existed. Even though new technology like the telegraph decreased the police’s response time this still meant that the police were always one step behind Jack. If technology such as DNA identification had been available I believe they could have caught Jack the Ripper within the first couple of murders.

The lack of reward didn't help the police either since it wouldn’t encourage the public to give any evidence or descriptions either. The newspaper had also received a letter from Jack the Ripper that had contained key evidence that could have meant the capture of Jack the Ripper. In a letter received by the media now named the ‘Dear Boss’ letters, the writer wrote that he would ‘clip the ladies ears off’ and when Catherine Eddowes’ body was found she only had one earlobe severed off. This led the police to believe that the writer was Jack the Ripper and if the newspaper had handed it in the police would have caught the killer.

All in all with the new police force came policemen with poor skills and with this came poor evidence gathering and missed evidence that could have aided the police. With two departments on the murder case many people thought it would have helped the case but in fact even though the policemen got along well the senior officers were fighting and keeping evidence from each other impeding the investigation. The attitude of the public towards the police also made things difficult since the public would withhold evidence and descriptions this with the lack of reward led to no reliable suspects and no reliable descriptions. The newspapers had also released many descriptions of people and, if going by the newspapers descriptions, the Ripper could have been anyone. In conclusion the reason Jack the Ripper was never captured was in turn the fault of the media, the public and the police forces own officers keeping evidence.