Cressida Dick

Dame Cressida Rose Dick DBE (born October 16, 1960 in Oxford ) is a British police officer . She is the Head of the Metropolitan Police Force (as Commissioner; formerly Scotland Yard ). On April 10, 2017, she became the first woman to take over the management of the agency, which has existed since 1829.

Life

Cressida Dick (front left) at the funeral of one of the victims of the Westminster attack

Cressida Dick's father and mother were professors at the University of Oxford . She studied agriculture and forestry. She then started with the London Police and rose quickly. In 1983 she started as a strip officer ( Constable ) in London's West End . At that time, she was confronted a lot with open sexism in the police, she later said in a BBC interview. In 1993, Dick had achieved the rank of superintendent . She returned to the university one more time and studied criminology at Oxford . After graduating, she returned to Scotland Yard with the rank of Commander .

On July 22, 2005, one of their officers shot dead the innocent 27-year-old Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes during an arrest. The police picked up de Menezes at Stockwell underground station in south London and one of the officers shot him in the head . They mistook him for another suicide bomber associated with the Islamist terrorists involved in the July 7, 2005 London attacks . These had detonated explosives in a tube and a bus in London. A committee of inquiry then found serious errors in this police operation, but did not personally blame the commanding Cressida Dick. The family of the shot dead described Dick's appointment as Scotland Yard boss in 2017 as a scandal.

In 2011, Dick became head of the Special Operations (SO) directorate with responsibility for all of Britain's counter-terrorism operations. In 2014 there was a dispute between her and the then Scotland Yard boss Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe . He moved her because of a controversial decision. She then left the Metropolitan Police Force and moved to the State Department .

In 2017 she was appointed to succeed Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe as the first head of the agency in the 188-year history of Scotland Yard. This decision was made by Interior Minister Amber Rudd ( Conservative Party ) in consultation with London Mayor Sadiq Khan ( Labor ), a former human rights lawyer. Shortly before taking office on April 10, 2017, Dick cut her own salary: In solidarity with the general austerity measures in the police service, she is paying almost 40,000 pounds (50,000 euros) less of her 180,000 pounds a year than her predecessor had received. Scotland Yard is the best police force in the world, said Dick after her inauguration.

Dick was President of the British Association of Women Police from 2011 to 2014 and is now Assistant Commissioner in the organization.

reception

Cressida Dick's appointment as Scotland Yard boss attracted particular attention because she was the first woman to occupy another “male bastion”. Her rise from the simple patrol officer to the head of the authorities was also highlighted.

Kathrin Pribyl (Augsburger Allgemeine) noted that Dick is considered “one of the most talented investigators of her generation” among experts. She is also not afraid to "utter inconvenient truths," wrote Pribyl, citing as evidence that Cressida Dick had the case reopened after a sloppy investigation into the murder of a black teenager. Dick said at the time that it was unlikely that the police would ever be free from racism.

Private

Before she was appointed commissioner, she came out as a lesbian and lives with her partner, who is also a police officer.

Web links

Commons : Cressida Dick  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Peerage.com - s. Cressida Rose Dick
2. ^ The Guardian April 8, 2017: Cressida Dick: the Met's new commissioner needs her wits about her
3. ↑ UK names Cressida Dick as London's first female police chief - Times of India . In: The Times of India . ( indiatimes.com [accessed April 12, 2017]).
4. ↑ ^{a b} New Scotland Yard boss: From Bobby to Boss , tagesschau.de , April 10, 2017
5. ↑ Who was Jean Charles de Menezes? , The Guardian , March 30, 2016
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Vikram Dodd Police, crime correspondent: De Menezes family call for Cressida Dick to be barred from leading Met . In: The Guardian . February 17, 2017, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed April 10, 2017]).
7. ↑ By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent: Cressida Dick promoted to be Met's top woman . In: Telegraph.co.uk . ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed April 10, 2017]).
8. ↑ British Police: Scotland Yard gets first female boss . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . April 9, 2017, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed April 10, 2017]).
9. ^ Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick to leave the Met Police . In: BBC News . December 1, 2014 ( bbc.com [accessed April 12, 2017]).
10. ^ Met Women Police Association: History of Women Police Officers. (No longer available online.) July 14, 2016, archived from the original on May 23, 2017 ; accessed on April 12, 2017 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
11. ↑ Kathrin Pribyl: Cressida Dick: The career policeman at Scotland Yard . In: Augsburger Allgemeine . ( augsburger-allgemeine.de [accessed on April 25, 2017]).