Cressida Dick is walking briskly through Central London, deftly circumnavigating tourists, greeting passers-by and pausing to chat with beat officers, all the while fielding my questions.
Cressida (or ‘Cress’, as she invites me to call her) is the first woman Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police — Britain’s highest-ranking police officer — overseeing 43,000 staff and a £3.24 billion annual budget. Her air of quiet authority is leavened by a mischievous sense of humour.
‘I don’t want to get you run over because that would be embarrassing,’ she laughs, putting out a restraining hand as I almost walk into the path of a bus.
We wend our way round back streets, skirting the site of a phone box where she made her first arrest 35-odd years back: ‘A guy was using a screwdriver to get the coins out of the box. He was violent, so I just shut him in using all my weight to keep the door closed until a colleague came to help.’
Cressida Dick (pictured), 57, revealed how she became the first woman Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
‘But you’re tiny!’ I say. She’s barely 5ft 4in.
‘Not that small. My fighting weight’s eight-and-a-half, nine stone,’ she protests.
The 57-year-old pauses for a briefing with officers who’ve set up two mobile knife arches — airport-style detection units — in a side road.
Such initiatives have led to significant arrests and increased public confidence that the scourge of knife attacks — four young men were stabbed to death in the Capital on New Year’s Eve alone — is being tackled.
In the job since last April, Cressida has overseen a period of shrinking budgets and rising crime. The threat of terrorism is ever-present, too: Cress’s first public duty after taking office was to attend the funeral of PC Keith Palmer, stabbed by a terrorist at the Palace of Westminster.
Since then, the Capital has endured a terrorist attack at London Bridge in which eight people were killed and 48 injured, and another at Finsbury Park.
These are sombre, testing times — does she ever feel she’s fighting a losing battle?
‘Far from it. I’ve never thought that. I genuinely love the job. I spring out of bed and I’m excited about what the day will hold. It is a privilege, sometimes challenging, but I’m very happy doing this job.
‘We have a world-class reputation for law enforcement and policing. I don’t have any trouble recruiting. There are lots of people volunteering to help, too; public support and confidence is high, so why would I feel negative?’
Budget constraints — the Met has been asked to save £400 million by 2020 — have led to claims that burglaries, and shoplifting of items worth less than £200, are not being investigated. Cressida disputes this.
‘Burglary is a horrible crime and we take it seriously. We will investigate it. Absolutely. But just like any other crime, if there are no viable lines of inquiry — no CCTV or evidence, no witnesses — we’ll bring the investigation to a conclusion. We’ve got to work out the best use of our resources and time.’
Cressida (pictured left) asked for a lower salary than the one offered when accepting her role, her predecessor Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe’s salary was £270,648
She takes a similarly pragmatic approach to shoplifting.
‘If we’re called to an incident and someone’s been detained, we’ll deal with them. We’ve never said that we won’t investigate anything less than £200. But if it’s not a good use of our resources, we won’t pursue it.’
As we stride through the West End, cabbies wave. When a young woman asks for a selfie, Cressida is ‘delighted’.
Being visible is important. She admits that public disquiet about insufficient police on the beat is a ‘concern’. ‘Part of people’s confidence in the police comes from their sense of how available officers are. But we do have to do a lot of other work — covert, online and cyber-crime, detective work on homicides, for example — where being on the street is not effective.
‘So I understand the desire for visibility, but it’s a balance.’
She’s resolute about spending every penny of her publicly-funded budget judiciously.
If I’ve asked for something to happen and it hasn’t, they’ll know I’m displeased
When appointed, she asked for a salary that was lower than the one offered — £230,000 compared with predecessor Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe’s £270,648 — and eschewed a Range Rover in favour of a pool car.
‘I didn’t feel I needed so much money,’ she says. ‘We all know policing is short of funds. It didn’t feel right.
‘I use public transport or walk. If I go any distance, I borrow a fleet car, sometimes a Mondeo. I see myself as a steward of public money. So I have to make every pound go as far as it can. I’m not banging on about it, but I do look to where we can economise.’
In her personal life, too, she is unostentatious. She drives a small saloon, includes listening to The Archers and gardening among her interests and enjoys British walking holidays.
A vegetarian, she drinks little alcohol, sleeps well and is not, inherently, a worrier. She’s distinguished by her punctilious courtesy, humour — and her ability to command through quiet, understated authority. ‘In all my years of policing, I don’t think I’ve ever lost my temper or shouted,’ she says. ‘But I don’t flinch from giving people hard messages or bad news.
Cressida (pictured) revealed her contract is for five years and she intends to set a good example of not over-working during her time
‘If I’ve asked for something to happen and it hasn’t, they’ll know I’m displeased because I’ll say so. But you don’t have to be rude.’
When she took the top job, she quietly came out as gay. Helen, 49, her partner of five years, with whom she lives (they were colleagues for many years), retired last summer from the police.
‘She was a duty inspector in a busy London borough. It was a big, demanding job — she loved it and I am biased, of course, but she was really good at it.’
I wonder how they find time to see each other — the demands of the job are punishing.
‘I try to set a good example of not over-working,’ she says. ‘I hope I’ll do this job for five years, that’s my contract, and it’s busy with lots of responsibilities and I want to stay fit and happy, so you have to look after yourself; you have to have down-time.
I hope I’ll do this job for five years, that’s my contract
‘It’s not a good sign if the boss is always there overseeing what’s happening. I have good, capable people in charge.’
She adds: ‘There are advantages and disadvantages of having a partner who knows about the profession. The downside is that if you’re not careful, you talk about it at home, which isn’t healthy. But the advantage is, I’m lucky, well supported, and she understands if No 10 is on the phone, I have to take the call.’
When Cressida joined the police, women officers were rare, and the few who were permitted to carry firearms had to keep them in their handbag, rather than a holster. ‘Imagine!’ she laughs. ‘Rummaging in your handbag at the vital moment!’
She hopes, by promoting flexible working hours, to get more women — including mothers with young children — into a force in which, she assures me, there is no gender pay gap.
It’s a breathless feat keeping up with Cress. When we arrive at West End Central Police Station, the lift is out of order. But she bounds to the fifth floor, chatting all the while.
Cressida (pictured at awards last years) says she had a happy and privileged childhood despite her parents divorce
There’s no ceremony for ‘the boss’ as mugs of tea and Jammie Dodgers are dispensed.
She has no family background in policing. Both her parents were Oxford University academics — her father was a tutor at Balliol College, where Cressida was one of the first women undergraduates; her mother was a historian.
‘I had a happy, privileged childhood,’ she says — although her parents divorced when she, the youngest of three, was aged four, and her father died when she was just 11. Educated at independent schools, she was raised by her working mum: ‘She thought everything my brother did I should be given the opportunity to do. She, and my school, gave me independence and confidence, but, I hope, not arrogance.’
She wears a wedding band that belonged to her late mother and says she thought immediately of her when she was appointed.
‘I think she’d be laughing away at the thought of her little girl being Commissioner,’ she smiles.
You never know what’s going to happen, but I’m never ruffled by the unexpected
Old friends say she has her father’s temperament: he was charming and charismatic with formidable organisational skills and, from him, she also inherited a sporting gene.
She played cricket ‘badly’ for Oxford — as wicket-keeper — and rowed for her college’s first women’s crew.
When I ask about the trauma of her father’s early death, she says: ‘I think it was worse for my brother and sister because they had known him longer.
‘After my parents divorced, I only saw him on alternate weekends and for half the holidays. These things happen. But you wouldn’t wish them on anyone.’
After graduating, she went briefly into accountancy, then joined the police, aged 23, and was a superintendent by 35.
Cressida (pictured) revealed her aim is to strengthen the force during her time
She took a career break to study criminology at Cambridge University, graduating top of her class, and returning to the Met as a commander to investigate gun crime in London’s black community.
Her record was unimpeachable until 2005. Then, in the immediate aftermath of the 7/7 London bombings, she was in charge of the botched operation that led to the shooting dead by police of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, wrongly identified as a potential suicide bomber. She was exonerated of all blame.
Nonetheless, Mr de Menezes’s family expressed ‘serious concerns’ when she was appointed Commissioner.
‘It was an appalling thing, an innocent man killed by police,’ she says. ‘Me in charge. Awful for the family, and I was properly held to account. We learned every lesson that was to be learned.
‘My job was to stand up and be counted, tell the truth and carry on.
‘If police officers fell to pieces or resigned when operations didn’t go well, it wouldn’t send out a good message.’
Her rise continued as she became acting deputy commissioner, although she’d actually resigned to join the Foreign Office in a security role when she applied for the top job.
Now, ten months in, she says: ‘We’ve had some terrible events in London — terrorism, Grenfell Tower — and I’m proud of the way the Met has responded.
‘I like to think I’ve made a bit of a mark on that.
‘You never know what’s going to happen, but I’m never ruffled by the unexpected. It’s a great big city and I want to leave a force that’s stronger and in even better shape than when I found it.’
The nine million people who rely on her for their security and safety are in small, but capable, hands.