Cressida Dick, the Met’s first female commissioner, who prides herself on backing her officers, is walking a tightrope over the force’s policing of the Sarah Everard vigil last night.
The appointment of the Met’s commissioner is a choice made by the home secretary, who is supposed to take into account the views of the mayor of London. And what they give, they can take away.
The fact that both Priti Patel and Sadiq Khan decided to intervene so quickly, amid allegations of heavy-handed policing of the vigil on Clapham Common is a sign of the trouble that Dick is in.
Both main parties want to appear pro-police, but heavyweights from across the political spectrum spoke out as pictures of male officers tussling with women at the vigil flooded across mainstream and social media.
The events present a series of dilemmas and dangers for Dick. She prides herself on backing her officers. This time, that is a risky option.
Dick has previously survived what many thought would have ended her career. She was in charge in 2005 when officers shot an innocent man dead, having mistaken Jean Charles de Menezes for a terrorist.
In 2011, she became head of counter-terrorism, a job she loved, but the then commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe ousted her and she soon left the Met. But Dick proved adept at having enough allies to return as commissioner in 2017, the only woman to hold that role in the Met’s 192-year history.
In the past year she has been criticised over Operation Midland, the disastrous Met investigation into a VIP paedophile ring, and by others over alleged racial discrimination in the way stop and search is carried out.
Two of her last three predecessors have been ousted before their five-year term was up. In 2008, the then London mayor, Boris Johnson, got rid of Sir Ian Blair by stating he no longer had confidence in him. Blair said: “Without the mayor’s backing I do not think I can continue in the job.”
The future of today’s commissioner is also in the hands of politicians, against the backdrop of an angry and frustrated public.
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