Cressida Dick: she didn’t want to go – but with scandals breaking around her, how could she have stayed?

The departing Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has criticised London Mayor Sadiq Khan on her last day in the job, saying, “I did not voluntarily resign.

But Dame Cressida Dick had to go, didn’t she? Multiple scandals involving officers of that service showed that she was not capable of maintaining order and a standard of behaviour that is expected.

As this LondonWorld article states,

Dame Cressida has spent 40 years in London’s main police force – including five years as its top officer – but quit on February 11 after mounting scandals.

She resigned after Mr Khan expressed his displeasure with her response to widespread public outrage over offensive messages exchanged by a group of officers based at Charing Cross police station.

It was one of a string of controversies that plagued her during her time in the role, alongside the murder of Sarah Everard by then-serving police officer Wayne Couzens and the jailing of two Pcs who took pictures of the bodies of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman.

There was also criticism of how the force handled the partygate scandal and the Daniel Morgan report which blasted the Met’s failure to tackle corruption.

But during a visit to the Metropolitan Police Specialist Training Centre in Gravesend, Kent, Dick hit out against London Mayor Sadiq Khan:

“The mayor of London is a democratically elected person. He has a job to do, he has certain responsibilities in relation to the Metropolitan Police Service.

“He caused me to say that I would step aside, I did not voluntarily resign. What happened in the run-up to that and subsequently in the last few weeks perhaps, I don’t know, will be looked at by Sir Tom Winsor.”

That means there will be an investigation into her tenure by the Chief Inspector of Constabularies.

This Writer is looking forward to seeing what that investigation discovers.

I have heard whispers that there was opposition to Dick among senior officers in the Met, and that these people may have encouraged unacceptable behaviour among their officers in order to discredit the commissioner.

If that were true, it would be a scandal for them to remain in post while she had been forced out.

Whatever the facts of the matter, the Metropolitan Police currently falls far below the standards expected of the people who supposedly protect us from crime. Far too many of its officers have been habitually committing crimes themselves.

But if the service is riddled with corruption, how can it be restored?

Source: Cressida Dick: Met Police chief hits out at Sadiq Khan on last day saying ‘I did not voluntarily resign’ | LondonWorld