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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Anthony France

I don’t want to be Met police chief, says top female officer Louisa Rolfe

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe

(Picture: PA)

One of Scotland Yard’s most senior officers has ruled herself out of the race to become Met commissioner following Dame Cressida Dick’s departure.

Assistant commissioner Louisa Rolfe was the public face of the Met after the murder of Sarah Everard by serving Pc Wayne Couzens.

Supporters hoped she would use her experience as national lead on violence against women to tackle the force’s multiple examples of misogyny. But Ms Rolfe told the Standard: “I’m very happy with the job I have.”

Last March, she urged women to report all instances of harassment to police, including cat-calling and wolf-whistling. She was speaking as the Met issued its updated action plan to tackle violence against women and girls.

Dame Cressida’s five years in charge of the Met ended on Sunday. She made the decision to quit in February after Mayor Sadiq Khan criticised her handling of racist, misogynist and homophobic messages shared by officers at Charing Cross police station, and after a series of other scandals which plagued the Met.

Writing in the Standard on Friday, Dame Cressida warned that a “politicisation of policing” was damaging confidence in the justice system.

Dame Lynne Owens, ex-head of the National Crime Agency, is Home Secretary Priti Patel’s favourite to take over the post.

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