Former Met Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
(Picture: PA)London Mayor Sadiq Khan has taken a swipe at former Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick — appearing to imply she was “lethargic”, “defensive” and “arrogant” during her tenure.
His comments came as he discussed a heavily critical new report by Baroness Louise Casey that has found the Met’s misconduct procedures to be racist and misogynistic.
Mr Khan blamed the failings identified on Dame Cressida, who stepped down from her role as commissioner in February after saying the Mayor “no longer had sufficient confidence” in her leadership.
A report later found that she had been intimidated into resigning, a finding rejected by Mr Khan as “clearly biased”.
Speaking on Monday, the Mayor pointedly expressed confidence that Dame Cressida’s successor, Sir Mark Rowley, would be the reforming commissioner the capital needed.
“Here’s the difference, you don’t have a commissioner in Sir Mark who is lethargic, defensive or arrogant,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
“You have got a commissioner with a plan to address those issues and with a plan to win back trust and confidence.
“The Metropolitan Police Service leadership, that starts with the Commissioner, didn’t take the issues Sir Mark is now taking action on as seriously as they should have done.”
He added: “What you will see over the next few days and weeks from the Commissioner is what Londoners, police officers, police staff expect from our Commissioner. It is really important that he has said he wants to be a reforming commissioner and that is what we need.”
Sadiq Khan has been formally summonsed to appear in front of the London Assembly to answer questions about his role in Dame Cressida’s resignation as commissioner earlier this year.
The Mayor is required to attend the session by law and could face a fine or three months in prison if he fails to attend.
It comes following the approval of a motion, proposed by the GLA Conservatives at a meeting of the London Assembly police and crime committee in September, which called for a special meeting on November 16 to scrutinise Mr Khan over Dame Cressida’s resignation.
Mr Khan will be the first sitting Mayor to be summonsed in this way through a unique power granted to the police and crime committee under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.
Also speaking on World at One on Monday, Sir Mark said hearing the personal stories behind Baroness Casey’s report “brings a tear to your eye”.
“It makes you angry and it brings a tear to your eye to hear some of these stories and to speak to some colleagues who have suffered such racist or misogynistic behaviour in the organisation,” he said.
“It’s been badly dealt with. You speak to some colleagues and what they’ve gone through and you see their continuing dedication to serving the public, it is really humbling.
“I’m not blind to the challenges ahead for us. It is that amazing good majority who still go out day in, day out and do great things for the public which encourages me that we can tackle this.
“There’s a lot I need to do. There’s some things I can do very quickly; for example, to strengthen our enforcement and what we do internally.
“I’ve already put in place a new anti-corruption and abuse command to use the same tactics we’ve used against organised crime and corrupt officers in that space to go after the racists and misogynists who are undermining us.”
