TOP OF THE COPS

Dick mène les flics (réf. à Top of the Pops, ancienne émission hebdomadaire basée sur le hit-parade britannique)

Pour la première fois depuis sa création en 1829, une femme va diriger Scotland Yard. Cressida Dick, 56 ans, connaît déjà bien le quartier général du Metropolitan Police Service de Londres où elle a effectué une grande partie de sa carrière. En dépit d’une bavure ayant marqué les esprits en 2005, la nomination de Dick est un signe certain d’ouverture.

On February 22nd Cressida Dick was announced as the new head of the Metropolitan Police. The appointment reflects a police force that is slowly becoming more diverse: around a quarter of its officers are female; so were two of the four shortlisted candidates for the top job. London is ahead of other big cities. New York has never had a female police chief.

2. Ms Dick arrives to an overflowing in-tray. Some forms of violent crime are on the rise. Senior police officers fret that the risk of a terrorist attack is the highest it has been for some time. Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, has promised more bobbies on the beat. She will have to deal with these challenges at a time of sharp budget cuts. Under her predecessor

the Met’s budget, which represents more than one-quarter of the money spent on policing in England and Wales, was slashed by almost one-fifth. “It looks like the sort of job you wouldn’t really want to have,” concludes Peter Neyroud, a former chief constable now at Cambridge University. GOOD COP, BAD COP

3. Nonetheless he reckons that Ms Dick is a good choice for the job. She is a clear communicator, so is well-placed to explain the trade-offs involved in cutting services. She used to run Trident, the Metropolitan Police’s anti-gang unit, so has experience of dealing with violent crime.

She was also once head of the force’s counterterror operations.

4.Not all take such a rosy view of Ms Dick, however. The loudest opposition to her appointment comes from the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian electrician who was shot dead by police officers in 2005 having been mistaken for a terrorist. Ms Dick was in command of the operation. Yet a jury later found that there was “no personal culpability” for her. Others say she was admirably honest and open in the aftermath. That is fortunate: given the difficulties the Metropolitan Police faces, it is unlikely to be the last crisis she will have to deal with.

Ms Dick arrives to an overflowing in-tray.