Man hunt? No, job hunt: Cressida Dick to be offered contract extension before exiting Met police
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Home secretary Priti Patel is reportedly planning to offer Metropolitan police commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, a contract extension as commissioner candidates run dry.
Dick’s successor will be tasked with overhauling Britain’s biggest police force after a string of controversies.
Although no final decisions have yet been made, sources from the Home Office told The Times that there was no clear candidate and so an extension was looking likely.
Patel has been looking for a commissioner who has significant experience in other forces outside of the capital.
Dick, whose five-year term will end in April, would like to continue in the role despite facing calls for resignation following the chaos at Sarah Everard’s vigil earlier this year.
Women gathered in Clapham in Everard’s memory, a woman who was raped and murdered by a Met police officer.
However, the vigil was abruptly stamped out by officers looking to enforce Covid-19 social distancing rules, which lead to women being pinned to the floor.
The force was also said to have “a form of institutional corruption” in June, by an independent panel investigating the unsolved murder of the private detective Daniel Morgan in 1987.
Then in July, the force’s security failures at Wembley Stadium during the Euro 2020 final sparked a mass of criticism.
The force’s problems had been “institutional” and that an outside figure would bring a “fresh pair of eyes”, the government sources said. However, “Options are still being discussed,” one source added.
National head of counterterrorism Neil Basu has been considered as the frontrunner behind Dick, but has spent his career at the Met.
Decision-makers have until the end of next month to decide their route to a new commissioner – to ensure there is plenty of time to find a replacement should Dick depart the helm at her original contract date or should the government’s position on the contract change.