London police chief resigns over lengthy list of scandals

The list of scandals in the London police is long: sexism, homophobia, racism. Because Mayor Khan did not express his confidence in her, Police Chief Dick has now announced her resignation.

Police chief Cressida Dick said in a radio interview yesterday morning that she had no intention of resigning. In the evening, after realizing that the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan no longer had confidence in her leadership role, the head of around 33,000 police forces resigned: “The mayor gave me no choice but to resign, which I do with great regret do.”

Labor Mayor Khan said in a statement that he had asked Dick to come up with a plan to deal with the problems facing the London police. However, that was not enough for him:

“Shocking behavior” by police officers

The list of scandals in which the London police have been involved in recent years is long. In a recent report, an independent investigative agency denounced the “shocking behavior” of British police officers in a variety of ways.

Accordingly, police officers at a service in Charing Cross exchanged racist, sexist, homophobic and violent messages in chat groups. The department concerned has since been closed. Other police officers have been convicted for sharing cellphone photos of killed women on social media.

Crackdown on memorial vigil

The case of Sarah Everard made headlines. The 33-year-old was kidnapped by a police officer on the street in March 2021 and later raped and murdered. At a memorial vigil for Everard, on Clapham Common, near the scene of the crime, police cracked down on visitors and pinned women to the ground. Reclaim the Streets co-organizer Jamie Klingler expressed her delight at Dick’s departure:

Serious investigative errors in a series of murders

The 61-year-old Dick was the first woman to be appointed to the head of the Metropolitan Police, Met for short, in 2017 and at the same time came out as a lesbian. Her contract was recently extended despite heavy criticism. The British Home Secretary Priti Patel, Dick’s top employer, said in Parliament the day before yesterday that there were problems with the work culture and leadership failures within the Met Police.

There were also serious investigation errors in the case of the serial killer Stephen Port, in which the police immediately ruled out homophobia as a motive for the murder of a young man. This probably cost the lives of three other young men.

The mother of one of the victims, Sarah Sak, had met Dick in December: “She kept saying what a wonderful employer the Met Police was for homosexuals, I replied: They have homophobic officers in their ranks. It takes someone with them more insight and assertiveness to take action there, the police are in the headlines every week with new misconduct.”

“Partygate”: Police refused investigations

The Met also did poorly in the investigation into the lockdown partygate scandal around 10 Downing Street, the seat of government. The police had initially rejected investigations with the argument that they would not investigate events that long ago retrospectively. It was only when top official Sue Gray, who was supposed to prepare a report on possible corona rule violations, contacted the police that investigations were started with a great deal of delay.

Dick remains in office pending the appointment of her successor. There is already a lot of discussion about who that could be. The Chief of the Met Police is appointed by the Queen on a recommendation from the Home Office. But without a trusting relationship with City Hall, a Met Chef cannot act, so Khan will be involved in the decision.

Is Johnson involved in the successor?

It is feared that Prime Minister Boris Johnson could also try to get involved behind the scenes. As part of the Partygate affair, he himself is currently the subject of a police investigation and is one of around 50 people from the vicinity of the seat of government who have a week to answer a Met Police questionnaire on possible lockdown violations.

Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson made it clear on the BBC that Home Secretary Patel must not let Johnson influence Dick’s replacement under any circumstances: “We know that laws and rules mean nothing to Johnson. Priti Patel has to make sure that Johnson does not have a say in the successor.”