Cressida Dick was today fighting for her job just days into her new term amid anger at the multiple missed chances to identity killer cop Wayne Couzens as a sexual predator – as she apologised and said he had ‘brought shame on the Met’.
The commissioner said ‘sorry’ as she ordered a shake-up of police rules which will see plain clothed police officers banned from working alone after Couzens flashed his police ID to carry out a fake Covid arrest before cuffing the 33-year-old in his car and strangling her with his police belt.
Dame Cressida said she was ‘absolutely horrified’ at the atrocity and recognised ‘the precious bond of trust has been damaged’ – as the force announced it will not deploy plain clothes police officers on their own in an effort to reassure the public.
But she immediately faced a wave of calls for her to step down, including from the senior Labour MP Harriet Harman, who said ‘urgent action’ was needed to reform the force.
