Mark Rowley

Sir Mark Rowley    (policeman)
Born	Mark Peter Rowley November 1964
Alma mater	St Catharine's College (Cambridge)
Member of	Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies/Fellows
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis replacing Cressida Dick  Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis  In office 12 September 2022 - Present Employer Metropolitan Police Service Preceded by Stephen House  Company Director In office 4 June 2018 - Present Employer Mark Rowley Consulting Ltd  Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations In office January 2015 - March 2018 Employer Metropolitan Police Service Preceded by Cressida Dick  Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Crime and Operations In office 2011 - 2014 Employer Metropolitan Police Service  Chief Constable of Surrey Police In office 2009 - 2011

Sir Mark Rowley took up his appointment as Metropolitan Police Commissioner on 12 September 2022, returning from retirement and taking over the role vacated by Dame Cressida Dick.

Former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said it was

"disappointing that Priti Patel and Sadiq Khan decided to bring back Mark Rowley from retirement. He spent much of his career in The Met. No evidence that he is a reformer. Missed opportunity."

Having retired from The Met in 2018, Sir Mark Rowley formed the management consultancy business Mark Rowley Consulting Ltd.

Policing career

In 1987, Mark Rowley began his policing career when he joined West Midlands Police as a constable. His early career centred on Birmingham where he undertook a broad range of both uniformed and detective roles.

He reached the short list of four candidates to become head of the new National Crime Agency but lost out to Keith Bristow.

Until Mark Rowley retired from The Met in March 2018, he was Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations of the Metropolitan Police Service, Chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council Counter-Terrorism Coordination Committee and National Lead for Counter-Terrorism Policing. He was previously Chief Constable of Surrey Police (2009-2011).

Playing politics

On 26 February 2018, Mark Rowley delivered a speech to the think tank Policy Exchange dedicated to attacking Muslim community organisations. Journalist Peter Oborne commented:

Rowley’s speech wasn’t about community policing. It was about top-down policing. It is significant and deeply ironic that the speech was made in Whitehall and organised by Dean Godson, director of Policy Exchange.

Mark Rowley is a policeman. There’s no reason why he should know, but Policy Exchange has dedicated itself to opposing rather than supporting so-called community policing. Before Policy Exchange set up shop 15 years ago the police and intelligence services concentrated with remarkable success on developing deep, trusting relationships with Muslim communities and institutions.

For example, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland they worked with Republican groups in order to isolate terrorists. Meanwhile British government, police and intelligence services saw their job as enforcing the law rather than policing ideology or personal beliefs.

Policy Exchange argued that this policy was wrong when it came to Islam. They argued against giving credibility to community groups, and pressed the authorities to police so-called "extremism" as well as fighting terror.

Policy Exchange made the case instead for an ideological battle against what it called Islamism, instead of old-fashioned policing of violent criminals.

So poor old Mark Rowley’s speech yesterday was a muddle, an intellectual shambles. Serves him right for playing politics when he ought to be doing his day job.

Islamic State 'Beatles'

Mark Rowley has strong views about a four-person Islamic State execution cell dubbed the 'Beatles' who were named as Aine Davis, Mohammed Emwazi, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh. The ringleader of the 'Beatles', Mohammed Emwazi aka 'Jihadi John', was killed in a US drone strike in 2015. Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were captured in Syria in January 2018 and were accused of links to a string of hostage murders in Iraq and Syria.

In February 2018, Home Secretary Amber Rudd left the door open for the two Londoners to face trial in the UK, after Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said they should not return to Britain because they had “turned their back on British ideas, British values”.

The US wants other countries to take responsibility for their own citizens arrested in the fight against IS.

Asked about the fate of the pair, Met Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said:

“The people who have done the most ghastly things overseas, the ones who don’t fight to the death, we would all like to see them never able to do anyone any harm ever again. Locking them up and throwing away the key would be a great idea.”

Mr Rowley was speaking to journalists ahead of a speech in February 2018, expected to be one of his final public engagements before his retirement from policing in March.

Having spent more than six years in a Turkish prison, Aine Davis was arrested by the Met Police at Luton Airport, Bedfordshire, after being deported to England by Turkey on 10 August 2022 and appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court charged with terrorism offences the following day. He will face trial on terror funding charges in February 2023, a pre-trial hearing at the Old Bailey announced on 2 September.

 

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Document:Targeting of Bernt Carlsson on Pan Am Flight 103	Letter	17 February 2023	Patrick Haseldine	Ian Ferguson: "In the early stages of the Lockerbie investigation, Bernt Carlsson's Presikhaaf suitcase was seen as the more likely bomb case. Police sources at the time said that this case was cleared of being the suspect case on November 23rd 1989."

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