Bernard Hogan Howe

Early life and career

Hogan-Howe was born in Sheffield, the son of Bernard Howe. He attended Hinde House School, a dual primary and secondary school, where he completed his A-levels. He was brought up single-handedly by his mother, whose surname of Hogan he later added by deed poll. After leaving school, he spent four years working as a lab assistant in the National Health Service.

He began his police career in 1979 with South Yorkshire Police and rose to be District Commander of the Doncaster West area. In 1997, he transferred to Merseyside Police as Assistant Chief Constable for Community Affairs, moving onto area operations in 1999. Hogan-Howe then once again transferred this time to the Metropolitan Police as Assistant Commissioner for personnel, July 2001–2004. He was then appointed Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, 2005-9.

Whilst still with South Yorkshire Police, he was identified as a high-flier and selected to study for a MA degree in Law at Merton College, University of Oxford, which he began at the age of 28. He later went on to gain a postgraduate diploma in Applied Criminology from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from the University of Sheffield.

On Merseyside, Hogan-Howe had called for a "total war on crime" and argued that the health and safety case which was successfully brought against the Metropolitan Police after the de Menezes shooting was restrictive of allowing the police to do their work. He had also called for a review of the decision to downgrade cannabis from a class B to a class C drug. He thereafter served as one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary, 2009–2011.

On 18 July 2011, the Home Secretary announced Hogan-Howe's temporary appointment as Acting Deputy Commissioner following the resignation of the Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, and the appointment of the incumbent Deputy Commissioner as Acting Commissioner. During that period, a decision was made within the department of professional standards to use the Official Secrets Act to compel The Guardian to reveal its sources regarding the News International phone hacking scandal. The order was swiftly rescinded five days prior to Hogan-Howe's formal term of office.

Commissioner

Hogan-Howe applied for the position of Commissioner himself in August 2011 along with other candidates, and was successful in being selected for the post on 12 September 2011 after appearing before a panel of the Home Secretary and the Mayor of London and receiving the approval of the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, before he was formally appointed by the Queen, with effect from 26 September.

In 2013, Hogan-Howe was criticised for defending police officers who had, according to an appeal court ruling, used "inhuman and degrading treatment", in breach of the Human Rights Act, when handling an autistic boy in a swimming pool. The criticism was specifically directed against the money spent on the appeal and his refusal to apologise and to improve training police officers for the humane treatment of disabled people. In September 2012, Hogan-Howe did ask an independent commission headed by Lord Adebowale to review cases where people with a mental illness died or were harmed after contact with police. The report arrived in May 2013 and contained severe criticism; Hogan-Howe responded to the commission's recommendations with a plan for change, announced in June 2014.

On 11 August 2014, Hogan-Howe made his first arrest as commissioner. The commissioner had to pause a pre-recorded interview with Eddie Nester on BBC London 94.9 in Tottenham when a taxi driver said his passengers were refusing to pay their fare, at which point four men jumped out of the minicab and ran away. Hogan-Howe got into the minicab in pursuit with another officer. PC Gledhill managed to arrest one suspect on suspicion of theft, handling stolen goods and making off without payment. The Commissioner then got into a police car in an attempt to embark on a search for three other suspects. One of the suspects was seen nearby and arrested by the Commissioner on suspicion of theft and making off without payment.

The 'Total Policing' vision

Hogan-Howe outlined his vision for 'Total Policing' in 2011 shortly after becoming Commissioner. This vision sought to promote total professionalism from the workforce, a total war on crime and total care for victims. It was hoped that the 'Total Policing' vision would benefit from a commitment to 'total technology' - involving the roll-out of new technology across the Met, including tablet computers, body worn video and a major overhaul of the Met's existing IT systems. In a question and answer session following his valedictory speech at the Royal United Services Institute in February 2017, Hogan-Howe expressed regret at having not embarked upon the IT programme earlier.

Position on ISIS supporters

Hogan-Howe was criticised in the wake of the 2015 Sousse attacks, after a father and his young daughter paraded at Parliament Square with the flag of ISIS (ISIL). Hogan-Howe supported his men after they had refused to arrest the pair, and said that carrying an ISIS flag is 'not necessarily the worst thing in the world' and should not lead to an automatic arrest. This was contrary to an earlier statement by the then Prime Minister, who had written that "The position is clear. If people are walking around with Isil flags or trying to recruit people to their terrorist cause they will be arrested and their materials will be seized."

Hogan-Howe was later supported by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who said that 'we live in a free country' and that he did not support the banning of iconography associated with the extremist group.

Institutional racism

In June 2015, Hogan-Howe said there was some justification in claims that the Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist.

Retirement

In September 2016, Hogan-Howe announced that he planned to retire in February 2017.

Police Roll of Honour Trust

In November 2013, Bernard Hogan-Howe took up the role of Patron of the national police charity the Police Roll of Honour Trust. He joined Stephen House and Hugh Orde as joint patrons.

Honours and awards

Hogan-Howe was knighted in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to policing.

Hogan-Howe's honours and decorations include:

On 14 November 2012, Hogan-Howe was awarded the Honorary degree of Doctor of the University (D.Univ) by Sheffield Hallam University.

On 15 July 2013, Hogan-Howe was awarded an honorary doctorate of Laws (LLD) by the University of Sheffield.