Cressida Dick has been named as the first female commissioner of the Met – the country’s most senior police officer. Hannah Chapman reports

THE first female head of Scotland Yard was the only one of four leading candidates not currently in a police role.

But ever since Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe’s retirement was announced, Cressida Dick has been seen as the leading contender to succeed him as Metropolitan Police commissioner.

The 56-year-old will move from a low-profile role at the Foreign Office to become Britain’s most senior and prominent police officer, in charge of more than 43,000 officers and staff and a £3 billion budget.

Although she has spent the last two years out of the service, Ms Dick had spent more than 30 years working in policing prior to her departure from the Met.

Born and brought up in Oxford, she was educated at the city’s university, graduating from Balliol College.

She worked briefly in accountancy before joining the Met in 1983.

Ms Dick served as a constable, sergeant and inspector in central south-west and south-east London.

In 1995 she transferred to Thames Valley Police as Superintendent Operations at Oxford and subsequently spent three years as Area Commander at Oxford.

She took a career break to study for a Master’s degree in criminology at Cambridge University, before returning to the Met as a commander in June 2001.

Ms Dick, who was the UK police lead for hostage negotiation, was appointed director of the force’s diversity directorate and head of the racial and violent crime task force before moving to the specialist crime directorate in 2003.

During her second stint at the Met, Ms Dick took on command roles in the police response to the 9/11 attacks and the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.

She was thrust into the public eye in 2005 after she was in charge of the operation that led to the fatal shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, who was wrongly identified as a potential suicide bomber.

A jury later cleared Ms Dick of any blame.

In February 2007 she was promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner, before becoming the country’s most senior female officer in 2009 when she was made the Met’s first Assistant Commissioner.

She was the national lead for counter-terrorism for three years, and also led the security operations for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and 2012 Olympics.

Ms Dick, who is seen as popular with the rank-and-file, left Scotland Yard in January 2015 to become a director general at the Foreign Office.

When her departure was announced, Sir Bernard described her as “a role model for women across the service”.

She was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for services to policing in 2010 and a CBE in 2015.

One of her main challenges is likely to be countering the threat of terrorism to Britain.

As well as protecting London from attacks, the Met plays a key role in the UK’s overall counter-terrorism efforts. The official threat level from international terrorism has stood at severe, meaning an attack is “highly likely”, for more than two years.

Budgets will also present a challenge to Ms Dick. Outgoing commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has issued a string of warnings about the impact of further financial squeezes. Dozens of police stations have closed and hundreds of staff have been lost after the Met made £600 million in savings since 2010. The force currently employs around 31,000 officers.

Ms Dick will have to deal with a changing criminal landscape. The scale of cyber crime and fraud are only just becoming apparent, with figures showing they account for more than five million offences around the country every year.

And last month, Sir Bernard said the number of “traditional crimes” is rising, including in London.

The forthcoming state visit of US president Donald Trump later this year will be one of the most high-profile early tasks for the new commissioner.

Mass protests are expected and Sir Bernard has called on ministers to make extra resources available for policing the event. The operation is likely to cost millions of pounds.