Cressida Dick drafts in external ‘anti-sleaze’ adviser to help root out predatory Met police officers
Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has committed to a review of her force’s standards and culture and will appoint a new “high profile anti-sleaze officer” to identify predatory officers, after a murder and a rape by two serving Met officers destroyed British women’s confidence in the police.
Pressure on the commissioner to resign multiplied in the last 24 hours after the Crown Prosecution Service revealed late last night that a serving Met Police officer has been charged with rape, after he attacked a woman in St Albans while off-duty last month.
It came as the country was still processing the details that emerged in the final stages of serving Met Police officer Wayne Couzens’ trial last week, when he was sentenced by the same court to a whole life order after admitting to the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
But speaking to broadcasters this afternoon, Dame Cressida refused to resign and said: “People will be entitled to their opinion, I’ve got a job to do, I’m getting on with it.
“My job now is now to lead the Met through a difficult time and rebuild that public trust, which I am doing through bringing an independent person to review our standards and culture.”
That independent person will be a newly recruited prominent “external figure” who will work alongside the commissioner to challenge her and other senior officers in the way they handle “standards, corruption, sexual misconduct” and cases of “officers who have let the public down”, Dame Cressida told the Evening Standard.
The newly appointed “anti-sleaze” officer’s key remit will be to “root out those who display predatory behaviour towards women or express inappropriate views among our ranks”, she continued.
They will also be tasked with a much wider review of “internal culture” and standards within the Met Police.