Cressida Dick

Dame Cressida Dick
DBE QPM
Cressida Dick in 2017
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
In office
10 April 2017 – 10 April 2022
MonarchElizabeth II
Deputy
Home Secretary
MayorSadiq Khan
Preceded bySir Bernard Hogan-Howe
Succeeded bySir Mark Rowley[a]
Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis for Specialist Operations
In office
18 July 2011 – 1 January 2015
Preceded byJohn Yates
Succeeded byMark Rowley
Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
Acting
8 November 2011 – 23 January 2012
Preceded byTim Godwin
Succeeded byCraig Mackey
Personal details
Born
Cressida Rose Dick

(1960-10-16) 16 October 1960 (age 64)
Oxford, England
Alma mater
ProfessionPolice officer

Dame Cressida Rose Dick DBE QPM (born 16 October 1960)[1] is a British former police officer who served as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2017 to 2022.[2][3] She is both the first female and the first openly homosexual officer to lead the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS; or "the Met").

Dick joined the MPS in 1983. From 1995 to 2000, she was a high-ranking officer in the Thames Valley Police. After earning a master's degree in criminology, she returned to the Met in 2001, and subsequently held senior roles in the force's diversity directorate, in anti-gang and anti-gun crime operations, and in counterterrorism operations. In June 2009 she was promoted to the rank of assistant commissioner, the first woman to hold this rank substantively. She briefly served as acting deputy commissioner in late 2011 and 2012 during a vacancy in the office. She oversaw the Met's security preparations for the security operations for the 2012 London Olympics. Dick retired from the Met in 2015 to accept a role in the Foreign Office, but returned in 2017 on being selected by the Home Office to succeed Bernard Hogan-Howe as MPS Commissioner, becoming the first woman to hold this post.

Dick's career has included several significant crises and controversies,[4] as well as a series of career comebacks.[5] In 2005, she headed the operation which led to the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. A subsequent review faulted the MPS for lapses, but Dick was cleared of personal blame in a trial in 2007. As commissioner she oversaw a service affected by cuts to police budgets and staffing levels. Controversial aspects of Dick's tenure include the Met's use of stop-and-search tactics, the handling of recommendations made after the botched Operation Midland, and arrests of attendees at a candlelight vigil for Sarah Everard and complaints by the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel that she obstructed their inquiry into police corruption in 2021.[6][7]

On 10 February 2022 Dick announced she would be leaving the role after losing the confidence of Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, over her response to racism and misogyny in the force.[3] Dick left office on 10 April 2022.[8] In January 2023 it was revealed that part of the reason for Dick's ousting was the Met's handling of the case of the serial rapist David Carrick, a Met police officer.[9]


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  1. ^ Dodd, Vikram (8 April 2017). "Cressida Dick: the Met's new commissioner needs her wits about her". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 June 2017. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  2. ^ Kara Fox (10 February 2022). "London Metropolitan Police chief resigns". CNN. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  3. ^ a b "Cressida Dick to step down as Metropolitan Police chief". BBC News. 10 February 2022. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  4. ^ Evans, Martin (14 March 2021). "Dame Cressida Dick's career has been defined by controversy". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 15 March 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  5. ^ Dodd, Vikram (14 March 2021). "With confidence in the Met falling, could this be the end for comeback Cressida?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 15 March 2021. Retrieved 15 March 2021.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference vikram1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Dodd, Vikram (16 June 2021). "Cressida Dick could face investigation over Daniel Morgan case". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 19 June 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
  8. ^ "Cressida Dick: Met police chief announces leaving date". BBC News. 2 April 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  9. ^ "Elite Metropolitan police officer David Carrick revealed as serial rapist". The Guardian. 16 January 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2023.