New Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick (centre), with London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, (left) and Britain's Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, at New Scotland Yard in London, yesterday.
London: Britain has appointed experienced counter-terrorism officer Cressida Dick, best known for heading an operation which led to the killing of an innocent Brazilian, as the first woman to head London’s police force in its 188-year history.
Dick, 56, becomes the most senior officer in the country, heading a force of some 43,000 officers and staff and controlling a budget of more than £3bn.
“I am thrilled and humbled. This is a great responsibility and an amazing opportunity,” said Dick, who has been working for Britain’s Foreign Office after leaving the London force in 2015.
The Oxford University graduate had been the favourite to succeed Bernard Hogan-Howe who steps down as Metropolitan Police Commissioner this month after five years in charge.
In speeches to mark his departure, Hogan-Howe said budget pressures meant there would be fewer officers in future and that the force was struggling to recruit the extra firearms officers likely to be needed to deal with any terrorist attack.
Dick will also have to decide how to police the upcoming state visit of US President Donald Trump which has already generated anger and is likely to be dogged by protests.
Highly respected and popular with ordinary officers, Dick joined the London force, known as Scotland Yard, in 1983 as a constable and made her way up the ranks including a spell back in charge of her hometown of Oxford.
