Dame Cressida Dick has dramatically quit as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police just hours after saying she had no intention of resigning
Dick, the highest ranking police officer in the country, had to go after the biggest police force was rocked by a series of scandals.
London mayor, Sadiq Khan, who put her “on notice” a few days ago, said he was not satisfied with her response to revelations that police officers shared racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic messages.
He lost confidence in her leadership and as a result she agreed to step aside.
Dick has led Britain’s biggest police force since 2017 and her five-year term as commissioner was due to end in April this year.
Her contract was extended by two years to 2024 only last September by the home secretary, Priti Patel, which Khan endorsed.
In her career she has been at the centre of a number of scandal from the shooting of Jean Charles Menezes on a London tube during the 2005 London terror alert to the murder of Sarah Everard in 2021 by a serving police officer.
Relations with Khan soured over Dick’s failure to root out racists and misogynists in the London force.
The sacking came after the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) revealed shocking details of messages shared by Met officers between 2016 – the year before Dick became commissioner – and 2018. They were uncovered by accident.
The IOPC said the behaviour was part of an offensive Met police culture, not just rogue individuals but the Met had continued to deny the force was plagued by misogyny and racism.
Dick was the first female to be made leader of the Met since it was founded in 1829.
The mayor said in a statement: “Last week, I made clear to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner the scale of the change I believe is urgently required to rebuild the trust and confidence of Londoners in the Met and to root out the racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination and misogyny that still exists.
"I am not satisfied with the Commissioner’s response. On being informed of this, Dame Cressida Dick has said she will be standing aside."
"It’s clear that the only way to start to deliver the scale of the change required is to have new leadership right at the top of the Metropolitan Police.
“I would like to thank Dame Cressida Dick for her 40 years of dedicated public service, with the vast majority spent at the Met where she was the first woman to become Commissioner. In particular, I commend her for the recent work in helping us to bring down violent crime in London – although of course there is more to do.
Dame Cressida said: “It is with huge sadness that following contact with the Mayor of London today, it is clear that the Mayor no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue. He has left me no choice but to step aside as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service.
“At his request, I have agreed to stay on for a short period to ensure the stability of the Met and its leadership while arrangements are made for a transition to a new Commissioner.
“Undertaking this role as a servant of the people of London and the UK has been the greatest honour and privilege of my life."
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