Priti Patel and Sadiq Khan, who have endorsed Sir Mark Rowley to turn around the struggling police, have now announced him as the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
The associate commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and former chief constable of Surrey of Scotland Yard won the £292,000-a-year position against Nick Ephgrave.
After a devastating inspection last month exposing a long list of new failings, the Met was placed under special measures. These included officers failing to record tens of thousands of crimes, ignoring nearly all anti-social behavior victims, failing to help vulnerable victims, and failing to handle a backlog of numerous online child abuse referrals.
He replaces Cressida Dick, who was forced to quit in February following a torrid year of scandals which saw the murder of Sarah Everard by one of her officers, the force being branded ‘institutionally corrupt’ by an independent inquiry and two officers jailed for photographing bodies of murder victims.
Sir Mark said today: ‘Our mission is to lead the renewal of policing by consent which has been so heavily dented in recent years as trust and confidence have fallen.
‘We will deliver more trust, less crime and high standards for London and beyond and we will work with London’s diverse communities as we together renew the uniquely British invention of ‘policing by consent’.’
Sir Mark stated that accepting the position was an honor for him.
Our goal is to spearhead the restoration of consent-based policing, which has suffered greatly in recent years as public trust and confidence have declined.
“I appreciate that the Home Secretary and Mayor are both adamant about supporting the critical reforms required to enable effective neighborhood crimefighting in the fast-paced world of today. These changes affect our culture, how we utilize data and technology, and how we approach enforcement. We won’t employ strategies on our own; rather, we’ll battle crime with communities.
‘I also know that the majority of officers and staff retain an extraordinary sense of vocation and determination and want us to do better. It is my job to help them do that, whilst also being ruthless in removing those who are corrupting our integrity’.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London who represents the Labour party, and Priti Patel, the home secretary, have reconciled over his appointment following their disagreement over Ms. Dick’s resignation when Mayor Khan pulled the plug.
Sir Mark Rowley, who served the people of the West Midlands and Surrey before leading the capital through some of its most difficult times following the 2017 terror attacks as the Met’s then head of counter-terrorism, was described as a distinguished and exceptionally experienced police officer by Ms. Patel.
‘He now takes on one of the most important and demanding jobs in policing, leading the country’s largest force at a time when public trust in the Metropolitan Police has been severely undermined by a number of significant failings. Rebuilding public trust and delivering on crime reduction must be his priority’.
Mayor Khan said: ‘A series of appalling scandals have not only exposed deep cultural problems within the Met, but have contributed to a crisis of confidence in London’s police service.
Sir Mark has made clear to me that he is determined to be a reforming Commissioner, committed to implementing a robust plan to rebuild trust and confidence in the police and to drive through the urgent reforms and step change in culture and performance Londoners deserve.
‘As Mayor, I will support and hold him to these promises as I continue to hold the Met to account’.
The news comes less than two weeks after the force was put into special measures by the police watchdog.
A letter from HMICFRS cited numerous fiascos at Britain’s largest force, including the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens, the ‘racially profiled’ stop and search of the Team GB sprinter Bianca Williams, and the strip-search of a 15-year-old black schoolgirl known as Child Q.
It follows further scandals, including the failure to properly investigate serial killer Stephen Port and the revelation of racist WhatsApp messages exchanged by officers at Charing Cross Police Station.
Other calamities included the jailing of two officers for taking photos of the corpses of murdered sisters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, and Operation Midland – the disastrous probe into fake claims of VIP paedophilia.
The force was also heavily criticised for failing to stop Extinction Rebellion protests from shutting down London, with videos of officers dancing with protesters sparking claims the force was not taking the issue seriously.
After four years as the Met’s counterterrorism operations director, Sir Mark is a well-known name. Sir Mark, who left the police in 2018, is still just 58 years old and has been persuaded to return by the most important position in British policing.
Prior to spending seven years as an associate commissioner for the Met after beginning his career on the beat in Birmingham in 1987, he worked for three years as the chief constable of Surrey.
He was in charge of the search for Milly Dowler when stationed in Surrey.
Later, he acknowledged that his investigators were aware that a News of the World employee had hacked Milly’s cell phone at the time of her abduction.
Sir Mark said that in 2002, a call from the paper to the investigation’s operating room made it evident that her voicemail had been accessed.
He said that because it was the first priority, cops only “focused on recovering whatever material the NotW had that may assist in the inquiry into Milly Dowler’s disappearance.”
Over the course of his more than 30 years in law enforcement, he has changed both police and national security.
He increased public trust in Surrey to the greatest level in the nation while serving as Chief Constable.
Sir Mark changed the way the UK tackles counterterrorism and policing gangs after joining the Metropolitan Police Service. He also increased community involvement and workforce diversity, led the police response to the 2017 London terror attacks, and brought shootings and homicides in the city to an all-time low.
He oversaw changes to public order, organized crime, and fraud police and established the 200-person Op Falcon squad to battle the rise of online fraud and cybercrime.
Since leaving policing in 2018 he has worked in specialist security projects and on technology/data led transformation with ‘start-ups’ and the world’s largest professional services company. He has focused on: countering extremism and racism, online safety, institutional integrity and illicit finance.