By Tony O’Riley-
Met Commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick’s contract is highly unlikely yo be renewed, following an ongoing row over policing at Sarah Everard’s vigil, it has been reported.
The Met’s Commissioner’s contract which expires in April next year will end at that time, rather than be renewed, reliable government sources have said.
After police were seen pinning women to the ground as crowds gathered at Ms Everard’s vigil at Clapham Common last Saturday, public confidence in Ms Dick’s ability to oversee the functioning of the police have seriously dipped.
Sadiq Khan and Ms Patel both requested an independent investigation and Ms Dick was forced to defend her position after facing calls to resign.
Khan expressed sadness with the scenes at the Everard vigil, but said he had full confidence in the Met Commissioner.
Not all ministers agree, and government sources told the Times that the experience police chief is unlikely to have her contract renewed.
The source told the Times: “Cressida is not seen as having done a great job. The police approach to the vigil and the handling of the Black Lives Matter protests p***ed off a lot of people.
“The general expectation is that her contract won’t be extended.”
On Monday, Ms Dick said she had no intention of resigning, and claimed that “what has happened makes me more determined, not less, to lead my organisation”
Excessive Force
On Friday, a relative of Jean Charles De Menezes also called for Scotland Yard chief Cressida Dick to resign over her officers’ use of ‘excessive force’ at Sarah Everard’s vigil.
Vivian Meneses Figueiredo expressed disgust at the sight of officers arresting women at a candlelit vigil in memory of the murdered woman.
Ms Figueiredo’s cousin Jean Charles was shot dead on a train at Stockwell Underground station in South London on July 22, 2005.
Athough catastrophic errors were said to have occurred in the police killing of Menenzes, Ms Dick at the time said: ” if you ask me if police did anything wrong or unreasonable on the operation, I don’t think they did”.
Botched Sex Abuse Inquiry
The main criticisms of Ms Dick’s tenure has focused on the MPS’s actions in the aftermath Operation Midland, after MPS investigation into alleged child sex abuse was negligently conducted.
The investigation was sparked by the false allegations of a fantasist who was later convicted of perverting the course of justice and fraud, collapsed in 2016.
An inquiry led by Sir Richard Henriques identified 43 mistakes by the MPS and made 25 urgent recommendations for the MPS to adopt, but a Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMIC) report concluded that the MPS had delayed implementing most of the recommendations.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct cleared Dick of allegations relating to the investigation, finding no evidence that she had “deliberately misled the public regarding her role” in the operation,[47] in which Dick had been briefly involved in 2014, before leaving the Met to join the Foreign Office.
Racial Disparities
During Dick’s tenure, the Met Commissioner has also come under attack for racism in the police force.
Since the Macpherson report was published in 1999, follwing the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1992, saying there was “institutional racism” in London’s Metropolitan Police., there hasn’t been significant change when it comes to racism in the police force .
The report highlighted institutional racism and a “failure of leadership” and suggested wide-ranging changes.
Under Ms Dick’s leadership, disparities in MPS’s use of stop and search among black and ethnic minority were controversial.
Black and ethnic minorities in the UK are many times more likely than white Britons to be stopped and searched by police.
However, Dick, with the support of Home Secretary Amber Rudd, defended the use of stop and search, arguing that the measure effectively combats knife crime and saves lives.
Current Racism In The Police Force
That said, racism in the police force is still very much alive.
In December 2020, a veteran detective was sacked after using derogatory language against a black colleague
In January 2021, five police officers were dismissed after covert recording equipment uncovered a “toxic” culture at an organised crime unit where abhorrent racist, sexist and homophobic language was the “stock in trade.
A covert bug recorded members of Hampshire police’s serious organised crime unit wishing death on foreigners, and overtly using racist language against a black colleague. Two officers also guilty of being complicit in the racist acts escaped punitive action, simply because they had left the post before the inquiry which took two years had taken place.
A push for the accountability of both officers have fallen on deaf ears, and no criminal prosecution against the officers occurred.
Accomplishments
Cressica Dick joined the Met in 1983, making remarkable progress through the ranks.
From 1995 to 2000, she was a high-ranking officer in the Thames Valley Police. She earned a master’s degree in criminology, before returning to the Met in 2001. She also became a Professor of Philosophy at East Anglia University at Fitzwilliam College.
She returned to MPS in 2001 as a commander and head of the diversity electorate
She subsequently held senior roles in the force’s diversity directorate, in anti-gang and anti-gun crime operations, and in counterterrorism operations. In June 2009,.
She was promoted to the rank of assistant commissioner, the first woman to hold this rank .
Dick was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service in the 2010 New Year Honours. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to policing.
In September 2019, she was promoted Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in Theresa May’s resignation honours.
In 2013, she was named one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4.
Cressica Dick has achieved great things in her career, but struggled to achieve enough transformation in the police force.
Mishandling of protests by the police, racism, and poor accountability is among the reasons she should step down in 2022.
Heading the British police force with its many challenges requires a leader with broad skills and insights into how to achieve this.
Someone a lot more efficient needs to take over the reins from Cressica Dick.