Dame Cressida Dick’s decision to leave the Metropolitan Police after losing the confidence of Sadiq Khan marks the end of a four-decade career in policing.
She joined the Met in 1983, where she served as a constable, sergeant and inspector in central south-west and south-east London.
In 1995 she transferred to Thames Valley Police, before taking a career break to study a Master’s, and then returning to the Met where she rose up the ranks.
Her resignation after a series of scandals on her watch at Scotland Yard has sparked a search for the next boss of London’s police force.
Here we take a look back at moments in Cressida Dick’s career in pictures:
Leaving the Old Bailey after de Menezes case, 2007
Made deputy Assistant Commissioner in 2007, Dame Cressida is pictured leaving the Old Bailey that year after the Met Police force was found guilty of breaching health and safety laws in the fatal 2005 shooting of innocent man Jean Charles de Menezes.
Mr de Menezes was shot at Stockwell Tube station by officers who had wrongly deemed him to be a suicide bomber.
Dame Cressida, who led the counter-terrorism operation, was cleared of personal culpability in a trial, but has been criticised for her part in Mr de Menezes’s killing.
Speaking to first responders after London Bridge terror attack, 2017
Prime Minister Theresa May, and then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull attended alongside Dame Cressida to speak to first responders from the emergency services outside Southwark Cathedral in 2017, the month after the London Bridge terror attack.
Eight innocent people were killed in the attack on 3 June 2017 after three terrorists drove into pedestrians on the bridge and then stabbed people in nearby Borough Market.
A coroner later concluded after an inquest that the Met did not miss opportunities to prevent the attack.
Welcoming the Queen to new police HQ, 2017
Her Majesty the Queen is pictured alongside Cressida Dick as she officially opens the new headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service on Victoria Embankment on July 13, 2017.
The Queen toured the building and met officers from across the force in what Dame Cressida called, “a happy day for the Met”. Dame Cressida led the security for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and 2012 Olympics.
Accompanying Duchess of Cornwall, 2018
Dame Cressida was often pictured with royalty in her role as the boss of the country’s biggest police force.
Among those times are when she accompanied Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, on a visit to learn about technological innovations used by the Met to protect victims of domestic violence, on January 25, 2018.
Celebrating 100 years of women in the Met, 2019
The commissioner, who was the both the force’s first female and openly gay boss, poses with an Austin 1100 police car at Westminster Abbey, ahead of a special service to mark 100 years since women joined the force, on May 17, 2019 in London.
Dame Cressida, who was honoured in Theresa May’s resignation honours in 2019, told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs that same year that her image was “a bit different” and described her sexuality as “one of the least interesting things” about her.
Laying flowers for victims of 7/7 bombings, 2020
Cressida Dick lays a wreath at the 7/7 memorial in Hyde Park, to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the London bombings, on July 07, 2020.
Speaking to media after murder of Sarah Everard by officer, 2021
The murder of Sarah Everard and its aftermath by serving officer Wayne Couzens attracted more criticism for the Met.
After Couzens was sentenced to a whole-life term in September 2021 for killing Everard, Dame Cressida said the Met was “absolutely horrified” by the crimes and later announced an inquiry into the culture of the force, led by Baroness Casey.
However, the force was widely mocked after saying that women who were worried about an officer approaching them could wave down a bus, and was also criticised for its approach to a vigil in Clapham after Ms Everard’s death.
With Boris Johnson, 2022
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Dick pictured together on a visit to Hendon training college for police on January 25, 2022 weeks before her resignation.
Despite months of calls for her resignation critics over a string of scandals, including the force being deemed “institutionally corrupt” by the inquiry into the unsolved murder of Daniel Morgan, Dame Cressida had insisted she was the right person for the job. Home Secretary Priti Patel renewed her contract for another two years in October 2021.
Resigning, 2022
After weeks of pressure on Dame Cressida to resign, the tipping point appears to have been the Charing Cross texting scandal, in which officers exchanged vile racist and sexist text messages.
Speaking to BBC Radio London on Thursday, Dame Cressida vowed to stay, saying she had “absolutely no intention” of resigning her position.
However, later in the day it became apparent that she had lost the confidence of Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, and the Met Police boss stepped down.
