Nationality British Name Cressida Dick | Role Police officer | |
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Education Balliol College, University of Cambridge | ||
Assistant commissioner cressida dick ict s 13th international conference
Cressida Rose Dick, (born 16 October 1960) is a British senior police officer, currently the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in London. She is the first woman to take charge of the service, being selected for the role in February 2017 and taking office on 10 April 2017.
Contents
- Assistant commissioner cressida dick ict s 13th international conference
- Commissioner Cressida Dick Metropolitan Police Detective Awards
- Early life
- Police career
- References
Previously she was a senior officer in the Metropolitan Police. Dick served as acting Deputy Commissioner in the interim between Deputy Commissioner Tim Godwin's retirement and his permanent successor, Craig Mackey, taking office at the end of January 2012.
Before 2005, Dick attracted little media attention, but became well known as having been the officer in command of the operation which led to the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. She was cleared of personal blame in a 2007 criminal trial. In June 2009, she was promoted to the rank of assistant commissioner, the first woman to hold this rank substantively. She holds the Queen's Police Medal for distinguished service.
On 22 February 2017, the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police jointly announced that she would be appointed as the next Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police by the Queen, on the formal recommendation of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary. She is the first woman to hold this rank.
Commissioner Cressida Dick, Metropolitan Police - Detective Awards
Early life
Cressida Dick is the third and youngest child of Marcus William Dick, Senior Tutor at Balliol College, Oxford, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, and Cecilia (née Buxton), an Oxford historian. She was born and brought up in Oxford, England, and educated at the Dragon School, Oxford High School, Balliol College, Oxford, and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Before joining the police, she worked in a large accountancy firm.
Police career
In 1983, Dick joined the Metropolitan Police as a constable. In 1993, she joined the accelerated promotion course at Bramshill Police College, and in 1995, transferred to Thames Valley Police as a superintendent. She was operations superintendent at Oxford, and later, area commander in Oxford for three years. In 2000, she completed the strategic command course and, in 2001, she was awarded a Master of Philosophy in criminology from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, graduating with the highest grade in her class.
In June 2001, she returned to the Metropolitan Police as a commander, where she was head of the diversity directorate until 2003. She then became the head of Operation Trident, which investigates gun crimes within London's black community.
In the immediate aftermath of 21 July 2005 London bombings, she was the gold commander in the control room during the operation which led to the death of the Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, wrongly identified as a potential suicide bomber (from which the inquest jury specifically exonerated her).
In September 2006, the Metropolitan Police Authority announced her promotion to the rank of deputy assistant commissioner, Specialist Operations. On 30 June 2009 the Metropolitan Police Authority announced her promotion to assistant commissioner, in charge of the Specialist Crime Directorate.
In July 2011, Dick was appointed assistant commissioner, specialist operations following the resignation of John Yates in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.
Dick was appointed acting deputy commissioner, and held the post between the retirement of Tim Godwin and the commencement of the new deputy commissioner Craig Mackey's term at the beginning of 2012. She held the rank until 23 January 2012.
In February 2013, she was assessed as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4.
She holds the Queen's Police Medal for distinguished service.
It was announced in December 2014 that she would retire from the police in 2015 to join the Foreign Office, in an unspecified director-general level posting. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to policing.
On 22 February 2017, the Home Office and the Metropolitan Police jointly announced that Dick would be appointed as the next Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police by the Queen, on the recommendation of the Home Secretary Amber Rudd. She assumed office on 10 April 2017; her first official engagement was that afternoon being at the funeral of PC Keith Palmer, the officer killed in the 2017 Westminster attack.
Dick came out as gay in April 2017, making her the highest-ranked lesbian officer in British police history. Her partner Helen is also a police officer.
Dick is negotiating with the government in an effort to increase funding for the, 'Met'. She said to the LBC, "[Terrorism] is a shifting threat, not a spike, that puts a strain not just on counter-terror police but neighbourhood officers. This is not sustainable for my police service."