London, Feb 11 : The head of the London Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, resigned on Thursday amid numerous scandals surrounding the agency’s officers accused of murder, sexual harassment, discrimination and racism. “It is with huge sadness that following contact with the Mayor of London today, it is clear that the Mayor no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue. He has left me no choice but to step aside as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service,” Dick said in a statement published on the police website.
At the request of the mayor, she will continue to serve as police chief unless the transfer of power to a new head is completed. In turn, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that the reason for Dick’s resignation was the urgent need “to root out the racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination and misogyny.” The mayor also stressed that he was not satisfied with the Commissioner’s response. “On being informed of this, Dame Cressida Dick has said she will be standing aside. It’s clear that the only way to start to deliver the scale of the change required is to have new leadership right at the top of the Metropolitan Police,” Khan wrote on Twitter.
The London Metropolitan Police became the focus of the British public in March 2021, after 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard was kidnapped, raped and murdered by police officer Wayne Couzens. In October 2021, the court sentenced Couzens to life imprisonment. Public opinion polls revealed that following the incident, 47 per cent of British women have lost confidence in the police.
