resignation
Scotland Yard boss Dick: Last working day on April 10th
Cressida Dick, Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police, is resigning from her post. Photo: Kirsty O’connor/PA Wire/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
London Police Chief Cressida Dick has been heavily criticized for her decisions lately. Now she takes her hat.
The controversial head of the London Metropolitan Police has her last day of work next week. This was shared by Cressida Dick on Twitter on Saturday.
Dick was forced to announce her resignation in February after London Mayor Sadiq Khan voted no confidence in her.
The country’s largest police agency, also known as Scotland Yard after the former location of its headquarters, had repeatedly come under heavy criticism under Dick’s leadership – not least because of a “toxic culture” of misogyny. Dick was accused of not getting the problems under control.
Pictures that went around the world
For example, the police crackdown on women who held a vigil for Sarah Everard, a Londoner who was murdered by a police officer, during the Corona lockdown last year caused a lack of understanding. The images of peacefully demonstrating women who were violently pushed to the ground by police officers for violating corona measures went around the world.
In another case, two officers were sentenced to prison late last year after sharing and joking about photos of two brutally murdered sisters in chats with colleagues.
successor still unclear
Most recently, Dick shocked the public by refusing to investigate alleged illegal lockdown parties at Downing Street, only to reverse her decision shortly before the release of a report that was extremely sensitive to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The internal report by government official Sue Gray was then published only in a greatly abridged form – and Johnson gained valuable time.
It was not yet clear who would follow Dick. According to a BBC report, the agency will be temporarily managed by Deputy Chief of Police Stephen House.