Mark Rowley named Met Police commissioner

• Sir Mark Rowley succeeds Dame Cressida Dick, who resigned in February.
•  He has served in the force for 30 years and most recently as head of the counter-terrorism.
•  Home secretary Priti Patel says “restoring public trust and reducing crime must be his top priorities”.

Sir Mark Rowley is the next commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, succeeding Dame Cressida Dick, who resigned in February.

Rowley served in the force for thirty years, most recently as the National Police Chief’s Council’s counter-terrorism head until his departure in 2018.

His selection follows a competitive process in which he faced off against the Met’s assistant commissioner, Nick Ephgrave.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, stated that “this will be a difficult time” and that Rowley will assume “one of the most important and demanding positions in policing.”

She added, “restoring public trust and reducing crime must be his top priorities.”

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, stated, “A series of awful scandals have not only highlighted underlying cultural issues within the Met but have also contributed to a crisis of confidence in London’s police service.”

Following a series of incidents including sexism, misogyny, racism, and homophobia among the ranks of the police force, Dick resigned in February after Khan stated that he had lost faith in her ability to change it.