Cressida Dick Keynote Speaker

Former Commissioner of the Met Police (2017-2022).
First female and first openly homosexual officer to hold the position.
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Cressida Dick's Biography

Dame Cressida Dick was the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police for five years and served 38 years in public service in the UK.

She was brought up and educated in Oxford before beginning her policing career as a patrol constable on the streets of Soho in London and served in various operational roles in the Met and Thames Valley Police in the 1980s and 1990s.

In 2000, she took a career break to study Criminology at Cambridge University before returning to the Met as a Chief Officer, undertaking roles primarily in serious and organised crime and counterterrorism and security. In 2009 she became the first woman to be an Assistant Commissioner in the Met and went onto lead the UK’s counterterrorism policing.

During her time in policing Cress was a public order and firearms commander, as well as a hostage negotiator, and led the Met’s response to a large number of major incidents and complex investigations. In 2015 she left the Met to undertake a leadership role in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, returning in 2017 to lead the UK’s largest police service.

She now divides her time between London and the West Country. Her interests include walking, swimming and gardening and enjoying the countryside, travel, watching sports and visiting galleries with her partner Helen.