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Selection of new London police chief scrutinized amid scandals

British Home Secretary Priti Patel delivers a speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Britain, on October 3, 2017. She said she will replace Metropolitan Commissioner Cressida Dick. File Photo by Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA-EFE
British Home Secretary Priti Patel delivers a speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, Britain, on October 3, 2017. She said she will replace Metropolitan Commissioner Cressida Dick. File Photo by Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA-EFE

Feb. 11 (UPI) -- Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel will be tasked with replacing Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick after her sudden resignation on Thursday, and some are calling for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to distance himself from the new hiring decision.

Dick said she resigned after it became clear she had lost the confidence of London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The Met has faced several scandals, including the murder of Sarah Everard by a police officer and complaints of how the department has handled the "partygate" scandal involving Johnson's attendance of parties during the pandemic.

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"Policing culture and conduct have rightly come under scrutiny," Patel said in an editorial in the Evening Standard on Friday. "Be in no doubt that a new leader must tackle these institutional issues. I will appoint a commissioner who will deliver results for the public that our police serve and represent.

"Beating crime, preventing crime, protecting our citizens, our streets and communities at a time when this government is investing record sums into the police is paramount."

Dick was the first woman to hold the position. Patel said the position holds national stature in the country and the commissioner must serve aware of those pressures.

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"And above all that's what I -- and the public across the country -- will want from the country's most senior police officer: someone focused on the basics of reducing violence in the city, tackling the abuse of women and girls, ridding our streets of drugs, knives and weapons, saving lives and protecting the public from the those who wish to do them harm."

Johnson is currently under investigation by Scotland Yard on claims he and other government leaders violated lockdown measures in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some are calling for Johnson, a longtime ally of Patel, to not get involved with the decision.

"We cannot leave it to [Johnson] and his allies to pick its next leader," Alistair Carmichael, the opposition Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesperson said, according to The Guardian. "Any impression that the Conservatives are hand-picking someone who will go easy on No. 10 would be disastrous for public confidence in the police."

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