Defiant Cressida Dick has said she is “disgusted” by the Charing Cross police text scandal but says she has no intention of stepping down.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has faced criticism on multiple fronts of late, including the bigoted behaviour of some officers within the Met and the force’s handling of investigations into the Downing Street ‘partygate’ row.
Speaking to BBC Radio London on Thursday morning she said: “I have absolutely no intention of going and I believe that I am and actually have been for the last 5 years leading a real transformation in the Met.
“We have a service now which is, I’m absolutely certain, more professional, fairer, more transparent, more accountable and closer to its communities and more effective in, for example, reducing violent crime, which has been going down year on year on year in almost every category, bucking the national trends.”
Commissioner Dick added in response to a caller who asked her if she would now step down amid scandals: “The Met does go through testing times.
“I have been working as hard as I can… I think about my leadership all the time. I’m not an arrogant person, I do adapt, I do change, I have done my very very best.”
The commissioner says she believes she is leading the Met very well amid scandals surrounding the force and Sadiq Khan putting her on notice this week. She added that the Mayor of London told her three weeks ago of his confidence in the force.
She did accept however that “the Met has issues” and “trust has been damaged by the events of the past few months.”
The commissioner said that the force is moving in the “right direction” in tackling knife crime and that violent crime was falling, notwithstanding the 30 teenagers killed in London last year.
Metropolitan Police chief Dame Cressida Dick has told BBC London that she couldn’t give a “running commentary” on the Partygate investigation, adding: “It would be quite inappropriate for me to say, at this stage, what the investigation will find.”
But she did reveal that “some” of the 50 government staff asked questions may get fixed penalty notices. “We will be writing with a questionnaire to over 50 people as part of the investigation to ask them to account for what they were doing,” said the Scotland Yard boss.
She said: “Clearly, some, but probably not all of those people may very well end up with … a fixed penalty notice.”
Dame Cressida added: “I recognise this is something that has hugely disgust many members of the public.”
Asked about the role of officers, she said: “It would be quite wrong for me to comment on whether anyone who works for the Met, did or do not know, what your describe as ‘what’s going on’, because that is part of the investigation.”
