Despite retiring from his career in the police in 2018, Sir Mark Rowley is a potential candidate to succeed Dame Cressida.

Prior to his retirement, he was Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations in the Met.

He began his career at West Midlands Police as a constable in 1987 before moving to Surrey Police, where he led the five-year investigation into the murder of Milly Dowler. Between 2009 and 2011, he served as Chief Constable of Surrey Police.

He was reportedly on the shortlist of four candidates to become head of the new National Crime Agency, but lost out to Keith Bristow in 2011. He joined the Met in October that year, serving with the force until his retirement. 

Wanted: Another contender for the impossible job

On Thursday night, Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, and Sadiq Khan, the London Mayor, were seeking a new Metropolitan Police Commissioner to replace Dame Cressida Dick.

It is the impossible job that – as well as offering a £250,000 salary – requires an all-seeing, all-knowing police officer with a superpower of hindsight and an ability to sense banana skins and avoid them all.

The Metropolitan Police is, by some distance, Britain’s biggest force, employing more than 33,000 police officers and a further 10,000 civilian staff, community support officers and “specials”. It is responsible for policing crime on the capital’s streets, investigating a murder every three days and close to 20,000 sexual offences.

Its commissioner also oversees counter-terrorism operations nationwide and provides protective security for the Royal family and senior politicians. Dame Cressida is not the first such senior copper to – so to speak – come a cropper.