London Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick in London, April 10, 2017. The pinnacle of London’s Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, mentioned she is resigning Thursday Feb. 10, 2022, after a string of controversies that undermined public self assurance within the drive and induced a falling out between her and the capital’s mayor, Sadiq Khan. (AP Picture/Frank Augstein, Record)
The pinnacle of London’s Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, on Thursday mentioned she is resigning after a string of controversies that undermined public self assurance within the drive and induced a falling out between her and the capital’s mayor.
Mayor Sadiq Khan had lately threatened to oust Dick from her position, announcing she wasn’t doing sufficient to reform the Metropolitan Police, Britain’s greatest police drive, and take on rising accusations of misogyny and racism inside of her ranks.
Khan mentioned past due Thursday it used to be transparent the one approach to overhaul the drive urgently used to be to have “new management proper on the most sensible of the Metropolitan Police.”
Dick, who has headed the drive since 2017 and is the primary lady to guide Scotland Backyard, mentioned it used to be with “massive unhappiness” that it has turn out to be transparent that Khan “now not has enough self assurance in my management to proceed.”
“He has left me no selection however to step apart as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Provider,” she mentioned in a commentary.
Dick, 61, added that she is going to keep in her position for a brief length to make sure the drive’s balance whilst a alternative is located.
A document closing week by means of the Impartial Administrative center for Police Behavior, the police watchdog, condemned misogyny, bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment amongst a dozen officials, maximum of them based totally in central London’s Charing Move police station.
The document cited officials joking about rape and the usage of different offensive language in social media messages, and mentioned the incidents have been a part of a much broader tradition that may’t be blamed on a couple of “dangerous apples.”
Khan mentioned closing week he used to be “no longer glad” with Dick’s reaction to requires exchange following scandals together with the killing of a lady by means of a serving police officer and the behaviour of officials cited by means of the police watchdog.
“Closing week, I made transparent to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner the dimensions of the exchange I consider is urgently required to rebuild the agree with and self assurance of Londoners within the Met and to root out the racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination and misogyny that also exists,” Khan mentioned.
He thanked Dick for her 40 years of policing provider.
Dick confronted intense force to hand over closing yr after a police officer, Wayne Couzens, used to be convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a lady, Sarah Everard, who used to be strolling house at evening in London. Everard’s slaying by means of a serving officer stunned the country, and the police drive’s next dealing with of vigils and protests in opposition to Everard’s slaying additionally got here beneath heavy hearth.
Dick stated Thursday that the Everard case and others had “broken self assurance” in her drive.