Following the resignation of Dame Cressida Dick as the Metropolitan Police commissioner, speculation has already begun surrounding her replacement.
Dame Cressida announced on Thursday that she would be stepping down after losing the backing of London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the wake of a series of scandals during her tenure leading Britain’s biggest police force.
With no clear frontrunner to replace the outgoing commissioner, here is a look at some of the likely candidates, one of whom started his career here in Lancashire:
7. Sir Stephen House
*Sir Stephen House is the Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, just below Dame Cressida, and so is a natural contender for the job. *The Scottish police officer has worked in several different forces and was appointed chief constable of Police Scotland in 2012. *However, during his tenure leading Police Scotland he faced criticism for his use of armed patrols as well as stop and search. *He eventually resigned in 2015 over the deaths of Lamara Bell and John Yuill, who lay undiscovered in a wrecked car for three days despite a call from a member of the public. *But in 2018, he became an assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police and was promoted to deputy commissioner by the end of the year.
8. Helen Ball
*The current Assistant Commissioner for the Met. She joined in 1987 but left in 2010 to join Thames Valley Police as assistant chief constable. *She later returned to work in counter-terrorism policing before taking on a strategic leadership advisor role at the College of Policing.
9. Simon Byrne
*Simon Byrne began his police career in 1982 in the Metropolitan Police before later moving to Merseyside Police, where he was with the force for 20 years, and Greater Manchester Police. *In 2011 he returned to the Met as assistant commissioner for Territorial Policing. He was appointed chief constable of Police Service Northern Ireland in 2019.
10. Martin Hewitt
*Martin Hewitt began his policing career with Kent Police in 1993 and later transferred to the Metropolitan Police Service in 2005. *He was appointed chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in April 2019.