Cressida Dick Age: (61 years) As of 2017, Dame Cressida Rose Dick DBE QPM has been the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. She was born on October 16th,1960. London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS or Met) has elected its first out-gay female chief officer. In 1983, Dick was hired by the Met. She was a senior Thames Valley Police officer from 1995 until 2000.
When she graduated from criminology school in 2001, she rejoined the Metropolitan Police, where she served in a number of high-level positions in the department’s diversity directorate, in the areas of anti-gang crime and anti-gun crime, and in terrorist operations. She became the first woman to hold the substantive position of assistant commissioner when she was elevated to it in June 2009. In late 2011 and early 2012, she served as acting deputy commissioner during a vacancy in the position. For the 2012 London Olympics, she was in charge of the Met’s security preparations. (Ultram) As the first woman to occupy the position of MPS Commissioner, Dick resigned from the Met in 2015 to accept a position in the Foreign Office but returned in 2017 after being selected by the Home Office to succeed Bernard Hogan-Howe.
Dick’s career has been punctuated by a number of setbacks and comebacks
In 2005, she was in charge of the operation that led to the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. Following a further investigation, the MPS was found to have fallen short, but Dick was found not to be personally responsible. In her role as commissioner, she has had to deal with a police department that has seen its budget and personnel slashed. Following Operation Midland, Dick was criticized for the Met’s use of stop and search tactics;
The handling of recommendations following the botched operation; and the arrests of attendees at a candlelight vigil for Sarah Everard in 2021, which the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel claimed she obstructed their investigation into police corruption. On February 10th, 2022, Dick stated that she would be stepping down from her position as London’s mayor after losing the support of Sadiq Khan. To ensure a smooth transition, Dick will remain in the job for a limited time.
Infancy
In 1960, Cressida Dick was born. The third and youngest child of Marcus William Dick (1920–1971), Senior Tutor at Balliol College, Oxford[8] and Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia,[9] and Cecilia Rachel Dick (née Buxton, 1927–1995), a University of Oxford historian, the daughter of Wing Commander Denis Alfred Jex Buxton, granddaughter of the banker and politician Alfred Fowell Buxton, and great-granddaughter of Thomas Jex-Blake, headmaster of Rugby School. Dick went to Oxford High School and Dragon School. (BA) in Agriculture and Forest Sciences from Oxford University’s Balliol College, where she studied from 1979 to 1983.
Dick was a wicketkeeper for a cricket team while he was at Oxford. [6] Dick temporarily worked at a prominent accounting business before joining the police force. [2] While at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, she completed a Master of Studies (MSt) degree in criminology in 2000 and graduated at the top of her graduating class. After a vigil for Sarah Everard was held in March 2021, Metropolitan Police officers detained four people for allegedly violating COVID-19 regulations on public meetings. It was Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, who led the campaign for her resignation. In her defense of the MPS, Dick argued that policing was “fiendishly complex,” and she slammed “armchair” critics. London Mayor Sadiq Khan, campaigners, and backbenchers all voiced their displeasure with the Metropolitan Police.
Priti Patel, the home secretary, and Boris Johnson, the prime minister, both remained confident in Dick. In response to Patel’s directive, HMICFRS was tasked with investigating the police reaction. [65] On March 31st, 2021, the HMICFRS concluded that the police “reacted appropriately and were not heavy-handed” and were “justified” in their approach with respect to the Covid laws since the risks of transmission were “too severe to ignore”. The prosecution of an off-duty officer for the murder of Sarah Everard prompted Dick to recommend that women who feel threatened by police officers should fight arrest, run away, flag down a bus, or contact 999.
A Career in Law Enforcement
In 1983, Dick became a constable in the Metropolitan Police, patrolling a West End beat. She was elevated to the chief inspector within a decade. She joined Thames Valley Police in 1995, where she served as a superintendent and then as the area commander for Oxford. Upon her return to MPS in 2001, she became the director of the diversity directorate and was promoted to commander.
In 2003, she became the head of Operation Trident, which at the time had a staff of 300 officers: Gun and gang-related offenses are investigated by Operation Trident; Dick, as commander of the team, was credited with lowering crime among “Yardie” drug gangs while he was in charge. Operation Kratos was commanded by Dick, who was the gold commander in the control room when police fatally shot Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian man who had been falsely identified as a potential suicide bomber in the immediate aftermath of the 21 July 2005 London bombing. A year after de Menezes’ death, Dick made a statement to the coroner’s office about his tremendous sorrow for the loss, saying that he “doesn’t think anyone did anything wrong or unfair on the operation.”
An open verdict was recorded by the inquest jury. When de Menezes died, the Met was determined to have made catastrophic mistakes, but Dick was cleared of any “personal responsibility” for the disaster. Dick’s career was nearly wrecked by the affair. 11 Dick stated this in 2019: “Those incidents are still fresh in my mind; I find myself reflecting on them very frequently. One of the most challenging times of my life. Jean Charles’s family, the persons who were present when the shooting occurred, the weapons officers, and the surveillance officers were all affected by this terrible event.” [20] When Dick was named Met commissioner, the De Menezes family protested.
The head of the Metropolitan Police Department.
The Home Office and the Metropolitan Police Service announced Dick’s appointment as the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police on February 22, 2017. Amber Rudd, the Secretary of Homeland Security, endorsed her appointment. On the proposal of Rudd, Queen Elizabeth II[35] officially appointed him by issuing a warrant under the royal sign-manual. Commissioners for the Metropolitan Police Service are chosen by the Home Secretary with advice from London’s mayor. Over Sara Thornton, national police chief’s council chair; Mark Rowley, Met assistant commissioner for counterterrorism; and Stephen Kavanagh, Essex chief constable; Dick was the only short-listed candidate. The police commissioner’s term is supposed to run for five years, however, Dick’s last two predecessors were removed from office early.
Honors
The Queen’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service was bestowed to Dick in the New Year’s Honours list of 2010. This year, she was awarded a CBE in recognition of her contributions to policing in the New Year Honours. In Theresa May’s resignation honors in September 2019, she was elevated to the rank of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). In 2013, Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 named her one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom. The University of Westminster awarded Cressida Dick the Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt) in 2015. Cranfield University awarded Cressida Dick an honorary doctorate in 2018. Cardiff Metropolitan University has conferred an Honorary Doctorate on Cressida Dick. On December 2, 2019, Balliol College in Oxford presented her with an Honorary Fellowship.
Private sphere
Dick became the first and only high-ranking British police officer to come out as a lesbian in April 2017. Prior to retiring in 2017, Helen worked as an MPS Inspector in South London.
