Cressida Dick with Home Secretary Amber Rudd and London Mayor Sadiq Khan
Home secretary Amber Rudd has confirmed Cressida Dick as the new Metropolitan Police commissioner – the nation’s most senior policing role.
Dick will be responsible for the Met’s 43,000 officers and a budget of £3bn when she takes over from Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.
She will also be the first female commissioner of the Met in its 187-year history.
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Dick has worked at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in a security-related director general role since 2015, but the bulk of her career has been in policing.
She joined the Met in 1983 and was a superintendent at Thames Valley Police before returning to London as a Met commander in 2001.
Dick led the national security operations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympic Games, and had risen to the rank of deputy commissioner by the time she left the force to join the FCO.
Announcing her appointment as Met commissioner, Rudd said Dick was an “exceptional leader” and had a clear vision for the future of the force.
“I am delighted Her Majesty has agreed my recommendation after a rigorous recruitment process which highlighted the quality of senior policing in this country,” she said.
The Home Office said six people had applied for the Met commissioner role and that four candidates had been shortlisted.
It said that the shortlisted candidates met with London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Deputy Mayor for Policing Sophie Linden before selection-panel interviews that were chaired by Home Office perm sec Mark Sedwill.
Final interviews took place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
An FCO spokeswoman said a replacement for Dick would be sought "in due course".