Met Police boss Dame Cressida Dick has insisted she has no intention of resigning and has done a good job despite a series of scandals in the force.
Taking questions on BBC Radio London, Dame Cressida said the force’s reputation had been “tarnished” and she recognised a cultural problem of “too much bad behaviour” in the force’s ranks.
Responding to questions about why officers from Charing Cross who sent racist, sexist and homophobic texts were still serving, Dame Cressida said she was “seething angry” about the messages.
“I am disgusted, I am angry and I know that so many Londoners and colleagues in the Met are as well,” she said.
Four of the officers have left, she said. Of the two who have since been promoted, one was promoted before being investigated and the other there was no guilt found by the police watchdog, she said.
“I am seething angry about the whole thing and I am very glad the four have left. There is no place in the Met for sexism, racism, homophobia, or for bullying,” she said.
“I have gone very strongly out to my colleagues and told them, ‘enough is enough’. This is a fantastic police force that is hugely capable but its reputation has been tarnished.
“I am absolutely determined that we will be getting out there and rooting out any further individuals. I have already said, if you have those attitudes, get out now,” otherwise we will find you”.
Asked whether it was now time for her to go, she responded: “I have absolutely no intention of going and I believe that I am, and have been for the last five years actually, leading a real transformation in the Met.
“We have a service now which is, I’m certain, more professional, fairer, more transparent, more accountable, and closer to its communities … so we have been performing.”
However, she added: “There have been far too many instances, some are quite old and come to light now and some are very contemporary and the Met must change”.
She added that she “thinks about my leadership all the time” but added she “can evidence in many many ways that many people would agree with that I have been leading the Met very well”.
On Wednesday, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has put Commissioner Dick on notice that his confidence in her could be lost if radical change is not brought to force.
He said he wanted to see what “her plans are to win back the trust and confidence that’s been both been knocked and shattered as a consequence” of the Charing Cross scandal.
Speaking to BBC journalist Eddie Nestor about the confidence the Mayor had, she said that she sat at a meeting with Mr Khan several weeks ago in which he said “he had never had more confidence in the Met’s ability to deliver”.
