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Dame Cressida Dick has resigned as Metropolitan Police Commissioner, following a series of high-profile controversies under her leadership. Britain’s most senior police officer conceded that she no longer had the confidence of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as he sought urgent reforms to address widespread public discontent with the Met. This has included anger over the Charing Cross station scandal; the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer and the crackdown on the vigil held in her memory; the failures of the investigation into the serial killer Stephen Port; and other scandals that have brought the Met into disrepute in recent years. These have fuelled allegations of institutional racism, misogyny, and homophobia within the police, and the Met’s handling of the ‘partygate’ scandal has further eroded public confidence. The pandemic has been a difficult period for the police, after a period of sustained budget constraints, and the unprecedented crisis means that understandable mistakes will have been made, but there are nonetheless fears that the vital bond of trust between the police and the public is fraying, and policing in Britain faces a watershed moment. As the police also address important priorities such as knife crime and county lines drug smuggling gangs, as well as crimes online, how can the next Met Commissioner reform the police to repair public confidence, and make communities safer for all members of society?
This episode of Bright Blue TV is hosted by the Communications Manager of Bright Blue, Joseph Silke. In this episode, he will be joined by the the Chair of the Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board for Police’s Plan of Action on Inclusion and Race, Abimbola Johnson, the Senior Assistant G1 Editor at The Guardian, Hugh Muir, and the Professor of Policing and Security at the University of South Wales, Colin Rogers.
To watch the livestream, simply click here.
