Dame Cressida Dick joined the Metropolitan police almost 40 years ago, while she rose through the ranks and became the first female commissioner of the force, her time has been marked by controversy.
1983 – Dick joins the Met as a constable, patrolling a beat in west London. She is promoted to chief inspector within a decade.
1995 – She transfers to Thames Valley police, where she spent time working as area commander for Oxford.
2001 – Dick returns to the Met as a commander and becomes the head of Operation Trident in 2003. It is credited with reducing the number of drug gangs operating in London.
22 July 2005 – Dick is the commander of Operation Kratos and in the aftermath of the 21 July London bombings – exactly two weeks after the 7/7 attacks – she was gold commander in the room during the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. The 27-year-old Brazilian national was repeatedly shot in the head at Stockwell tube station by officers who mistook him for a suicide bomber.
While the Met was found to have made catastrophic errors that led to De Menezes’s death, Dick was cleared of any “personal culpability” for the tragedy. The De Menezes family would later call for Dick to be barred from leading the Met.
2011 – In July, Dick is appointed assistant commissioner, specialist operations, and oversees security during the 2012 Olympics in London. Later that year, she is appointed acting deputy commissioner. However, a strained relationship with the then commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, sees Dick leave the Met for a role in the Foreign Office.
22 February 2017 - Dick becomes the first female head of the Met, completing a remarkable career comeback. She vows to reform the force but faces immediate challenges in her first year following the terrorist attacks at Westminster, London Bridge and Finsbury Park.
December 2019 – Dick was referred to the police watchdog over her handling of Operation Midland, the force’s investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse by members of the British establishment. The inquiry lasted a year and a half, cost £2.5m, and ended without a single arrest.
However, the Independent Office for Police Conduct cleared Dick of allegations relating to the investigation, finding no evidence that she had “deliberately misled the public”.
June 2020 – Sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman are murdered in a north London park. There is initial criticism of the force over their poor response to reports the women were missing. Their bodies were found by family members.
An apology was angrily rejected by the victims’ family. Their mother, Mina Smallman, said the officers “dehumanised our children” and said she believed racism was a factor in the lack of initial search.
September 2020 - Dick faces calls to resign by Black Lives Matter activists who say she has “failed to acknowledge” racism within the force.
March 2021 – Dick’s handling of the murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens caused anger and frustration in City Hall and government.
After her killer was sentenced to a whole-life term in September 2021, the Met leadership was expected to show it understood the concerns. Instead it was mocked after saying that women who were worried about an officer approaching them could wave down a bus. The Met announced its own inquiry, as have the government.
The Met was also criticised for its handling of a vigil held for Everard, which resulted in clashes and arrests.
June 2021 – The Met is described as “institutionally corrupt” and Dick is personally censured for obstruction by an independent inquiry set up to review the murder of the private detective Daniel Morgan in 1987.
The findings trigger calls from his brother, Alastair, for Dick to consider her position.
January 2022 – Dick is criticised for the Met’s initial failure to investigate alleged parties held at Downing Street and other government offices during lockdown. The Met later confirmed it would indeed investigate.
February 2022 – It emerges that a Met officer disciplined after an inquiry into misogynistic and racist messages has since been promoted.
Misconduct was proven against the unnamed officer after a watchdog inquiry into messages about hitting and raping women, which were shared by up to 19 officers based mainly at Charing Cross police station.
