Metropolitan Police chief resigns after report of 'inappropriate behaviours'

Metropolitan Police chief resigns after report of 'inappropriate behaviours'
February 11, 2022, 9:51 am

British police-England-London/Pixabay

The Euronews reporte, the head of London's Metropolitan Police resigned on Thursday evening stating she has lost the confidence of Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Cressida Dick said in a statement: "It is with huge sadness that following contact with the Mayor of London today, it is clear the Mayor no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue."

She added: "He has left me no choice but to step aside as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service."

The Euronews said that Dick, 61, will stay "for a short period" while arrangements are made for a transition to a new Commissioner.

It mentioned that her resignation comes over a week after the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) released a report in which it flagged "inappropriate behaviours" within the Metropolitan Police's ranks including racism, misogyny, harassment and the exchange of offensive social media messages.

UK police-London city in England/Pixabay

Sadiq Khan said in a statement that he was "not satisfied with the Commissioner's response" to the report.

He said: "On being informed of this, Dame Cressida Dick has said she will be standing aside. It's clear that the only way to start to deliver the scale of the change required is to have new leadership right at the top of the Metropolitan Police."

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Khan thanked the Commissioner, who was the first woman to hold the job, for her "40 years of dedicated public service" and praised her for "the recent work in helping us to bring down violent crime in London — although of course there is more to do."

He added that he will now work with Home Secretary Priti Patel to appoint a new Commissioner.

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Dick described her time as Commissioner as "the greatest honour and privilege of my life" despite "many tough calls" including the 2017 terrorist attacks, the Grenfell fire, the pandemic ad the murder of serving officers.

She also defended her track record, highlighting that "the Met is bucking the national trend" as "violence is down".

Source: euronews

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