Cressida Dick

Cressida Dick     (police officer)
Born	1960-10-16 Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis  In office 10 April 2017 - Present  Director General In office January 2015 - April 2017 Employer Foreign and Commonwealth Office  Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations In office July 2011 - January 2015 Succeeded by Mark Rowley  Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police In office 8 November 2011 - 23 January 2012 Preceded by Tim Godwin Succeeded by Craig Mackey

In January 2015, Britain’s most senior female police officer, Cressida Dick, left the Metropolitan Police Service after 31 years, having climbed the ranks from beat bobby to national counter-terrorism chief and having been in charge of the Met’s response to 9/11, the 7/7 bombings and the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.

FCO Director General

Cressida Dick joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 19 January 2015 but her new role was shrouded in intense secrecy.

In response to Freedom of Information Act requests from The Intercept, the Foreign Office repeatedly declined to disclose even the most basic details about Dick’s position. Government officials handling the FOIA requests said that members of the public were not entitled to know anything about Dick’s job title, role and responsibilities, or the amount of money she was earning – despite the fact that specific salaries earned by senior Foreign Office officials, as well as their job titles, were usually routinely made available online.

In two separate refusal letters issued in February and March 2015, the Foreign Office said that it would not hand over the information because it relates to “bodies dealing with security matters,” and so the government was “not obliged to consider the public interest in disclosure.” It would acknowledge only that Dick has been appointed in a “director general” position.

Met Police Commissioner

In February 2017, Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced the appointment of Cressida Dick as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police upon the retirement of Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe:

“I am delighted Her Majesty has agreed my recommendation after a rigorous recruitment process which highlighted the quality of senior policing in this country."

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said:

"Cressida Dick will be the first female Commissioner of the Met in its 187-year history, and the most powerful police officer in the land."

The appointment was criticised by the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian man who was killed after the 7/7 London bombings, when he was mistakenly identified as a terror suspect during an operation Cressida Dick led in 2005 as national policing lead on counter-terrorism. A jury later found there was “no personal culpability for Commander Dick”.

First day

Cressida Dick's first day as Metropolitan Police Commissioner on Monday 10 April 2017 coincided with the funeral at Southwark Cathedral of Police Constable Keith Palmer who was stabbed to death by Khalid Masood on 22 March 2017.

Yvonne Fletcher

In May 2017, a decision was announced for reasons of "national security" that WPC Yvonne Fletcher's alleged murderer, Saleh Ibrahim Mabrouk, would not be taken to court. Senior policing sources told The Telegraph that the case against Mabrouk was dropped after a decision taken at the “highest level”. The source added: “Number 10 was involved.”

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said:

“I cannot comment on the details of this case. I would however like to acknowledge the hard work and commitment the Metropolitan police have shown over a prolonged period of time to bring to justice those involved in the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher.

“WPC Fletcher was one of their own. Her murder remains as shocking and senseless as the day it occurred and I understand that the decision will be deeply disappointing and frustrating for all her family, friends and colleagues.”

 

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Document:MI6, Theresa May and the Manchester attack	Article	30 May 2017	Jonathan Cook	And so the story of MI6 and Theresa May, their sponsorship of Islamic jihadism, and the likely “blowback” the UK just experienced in Manchester is a sleeping dog no one seems willing to disturb.
Document:Police Violence	Article	1 October 2021	Mike Small	The radical overhaul of how we view policing and law and order shouldn’t be contained within the prism of the appalling problem of male violence – but seen in the context of state violence, the repression of dissent and the growth of the surveillance state.

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