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Cressida Dick
Dame Cressida Rose Dick (born 16 October 1960) is a British former police officer who served as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2017 to 2022. She is both the first female and the first openly homosexual officer to lead the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS; or "the Met").
Dick joined the MPS in 1983. From 1995 to 2000 she was a high-ranking officer in the Thames Valley Police. After earning a master's degree in criminology, she returned to the Met in 2001, and 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 substantively. She briefly served as acting deputy commissioner in late 2011 and 2012 during a vacancy in the office. She oversaw the Met's security preparations for the security operations for the 2012 London Olympics. Dick retired from the Met in 2015 to accept a role in the Foreign Office, but returned in 2017 on being selected by the Home Office to succeed Bernard Hogan-Howe as MPS Commissioner, becoming the first woman to hold this post.
Dick's career has included several significant crises and controversies, as well as a series of career comebacks. In 2005 she headed the operation which led to the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. A subsequent review faulted the MPS for lapses, but Dick was cleared of personal blame in a trial in 2007. As commissioner she oversaw a service affected by cuts to police budgets and staffing levels. Controversial aspects of Dick's tenure include the Met's use of stop-and-search tactics, the handling of recommendations made after the botched Operation Midland, and arrests of attendees at a candlelight vigil for Sarah Everard and complaints by the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel that she obstructed their inquiry into police corruption in 2021.
On 10 February 2022, Dick announced she would be leaving the role after losing the confidence of Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, over her response to racism and misogyny in the force. Dick left office on 10 April 2022. In January 2023 it was revealed that part of the reason for Dick's ousting was the Met's handling of the case of the serial rapist David Carrick, a Met police officer.
Dick was born on 16 October 1960 in Oxford, where she was brought up. She is the third and youngest child of Marcus William Dick (1920–1971), Senior Tutor at Balliol College, Oxford, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, and Cecilia Rachel Dick (née Buxton, 1927–1995), a University of Oxford historian, daughter of Wing Commander Denis Alfred Jex Buxton, granddaughter of the banker and politician Alfred Fowell Buxton, and great-granddaughter of Thomas Jex-Blake, headmaster of Rugby School.
Dick was educated at the Dragon School and Oxford High School, then in 1979 she was admitted to Balliol College, Oxford where she took a BA degree in Agriculture and Forest Sciences. While at Oxford, Dick was a wicketkeeper on a cricket team.
Before joining the police, Dick worked briefly in a large accountancy firm. Some years later, she took a course in criminology at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, gaining a Master of Studies degree in 2000 and graduating at the top of her class.
In 1983, Dick joined the Metropolitan Police as a constable, patrolling a beat in the West End of London. Within a decade she had been promoted to chief inspector. In 1995, she transferred to Thames Valley Police, where she was initially a superintendent and then chief superintendent and area commander for Oxford.
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Cressida Dick
Dame Cressida Rose Dick (born 16 October 1960) is a British former police officer who served as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2017 to 2022. She is both the first female and the first openly homosexual officer to lead the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS; or "the Met").
Dick joined the MPS in 1983. From 1995 to 2000 she was a high-ranking officer in the Thames Valley Police. After earning a master's degree in criminology, she returned to the Met in 2001, and 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 substantively. She briefly served as acting deputy commissioner in late 2011 and 2012 during a vacancy in the office. She oversaw the Met's security preparations for the security operations for the 2012 London Olympics. Dick retired from the Met in 2015 to accept a role in the Foreign Office, but returned in 2017 on being selected by the Home Office to succeed Bernard Hogan-Howe as MPS Commissioner, becoming the first woman to hold this post.
Dick's career has included several significant crises and controversies, as well as a series of career comebacks. In 2005 she headed the operation which led to the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. A subsequent review faulted the MPS for lapses, but Dick was cleared of personal blame in a trial in 2007. As commissioner she oversaw a service affected by cuts to police budgets and staffing levels. Controversial aspects of Dick's tenure include the Met's use of stop-and-search tactics, the handling of recommendations made after the botched Operation Midland, and arrests of attendees at a candlelight vigil for Sarah Everard and complaints by the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel that she obstructed their inquiry into police corruption in 2021.
On 10 February 2022, Dick announced she would be leaving the role after losing the confidence of Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, over her response to racism and misogyny in the force. Dick left office on 10 April 2022. In January 2023 it was revealed that part of the reason for Dick's ousting was the Met's handling of the case of the serial rapist David Carrick, a Met police officer.
Dick was born on 16 October 1960 in Oxford, where she was brought up. She is the third and youngest child of Marcus William Dick (1920–1971), Senior Tutor at Balliol College, Oxford, and Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, and Cecilia Rachel Dick (née Buxton, 1927–1995), a University of Oxford historian, daughter of Wing Commander Denis Alfred Jex Buxton, granddaughter of the banker and politician Alfred Fowell Buxton, and great-granddaughter of Thomas Jex-Blake, headmaster of Rugby School.
Dick was educated at the Dragon School and Oxford High School, then in 1979 she was admitted to Balliol College, Oxford where she took a BA degree in Agriculture and Forest Sciences. While at Oxford, Dick was a wicketkeeper on a cricket team.
Before joining the police, Dick worked briefly in a large accountancy firm. Some years later, she took a course in criminology at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, gaining a Master of Studies degree in 2000 and graduating at the top of her class.
In 1983, Dick joined the Metropolitan Police as a constable, patrolling a beat in the West End of London. Within a decade she had been promoted to chief inspector. In 1995, she transferred to Thames Valley Police, where she was initially a superintendent and then chief superintendent and area commander for Oxford.
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