CRESSIDA DICK

One of the things we do not want is to become a complete fortress. This is not going to happen with military on every street corner or armed police officers everywhere. We do not want that so we have to be intelligent in our response and to be proportionate in our response.

I long for the day when we can all be ourselves, whoever we are, and express ourselves in whatever way we like, and we don't have these kinds of funny constraints in our heads that make us feel 'Ooh, there's a different power relationship because that's a man and that's a woman'. And we still get that. It's not helpful.

It is not in my mind's eye that all officers will be carrying a Taser but we should have people able to deploy it.

One of the things that I feel very blessed about is that I was given a fair amount of confidence as a young person and I constantly meet young people, even today, maybe even more today, when it is clearly not a given that they will have a reasonable amount of confidence.

I am all about teams. I think I have probably got a reasonably relaxed style as a senior leader, I am pretty demanding, I am known as tough, not a soft touch, but I try to be friendly and I want my staff to feel they can come up and chat to me.

I want to bear down on violent crime, in all its aspects from terrorism to sexual offences but definitely knife and gun crime, particularly as it affects young people.

Not having children isn't something I regret. I acknowledge that some things have been easier for me than they would have been for others.

There is something about putting the uniform on. You've got a role to play, to be calm, to lead other people, to go forward when everyone else is running away. It gives you a sense of, not of courage but, 'It's my job.'

Looking back to when I joined, some areas of policing were barred for women. So you couldn't do full public order training, you couldn't carry a firearm as a woman in the Met until 1988, there were no women dog handlers, and there was probably one woman in CID.

There will be occasions when someone has suffered a crime where it is either obvious that they are not looking for an investigation or that there are no investigative opportunities and you just have to be up front about that.

Not having children isn't something I regret. I acknowledge that some things have been easier for me than they would have been for others.

Being a firearms officer is incredibly highly scrutinised now, and I think it is one of the things that puts off quite a lot of people. And if you think that you are more visible in that role as a woman, you might feel slightly less inclined to go into it than a man.

I want to see traditional policing with a modern flavour. I am completely committed to local, visible policing, but we have to modernise. There are such opportunities for people to interact with police through the digital sphere that we have not achieved yet.

Women take much the biggest proportion of work in terms of home and childcare. Societally we need a culture change. It's still the case that expectations are different for men and women.

There is something about putting the uniform on. You've got a role to play, to be calm, to lead other people, to go forward when everyone else is running away. It gives you a sense of, not of courage but, 'It's my job.'

I don't think the public want to see loads and loads of firearms officers everywhere, what they do want to know is that we are able to respond well and prevent things and we will protect them properly.

I long for the day when we can all be ourselves, whoever we are, and express ourselves in whatever way we like, and we don't have these kinds of funny constraints in our heads that make us feel 'Ooh, there's a different power relationship because that's a man and that's a woman'. And we still get that. It's not helpful.

But a sense of - in old-fashioned speak - 'I am OK, I do deserve to be here, I can do what I want to do, I can be myself, I can express myself' is really important as you go into the working world.

Looking back to when I joined, some areas of policing were barred for women. So you couldn't do full public order training, you couldn't carry a firearm as a woman in the Met until 1988, there were no women dog handlers, and there was probably one woman in CID.

One of the things that I feel very blessed about is that I was given a fair amount of confidence as a young person and I constantly meet young people, even today, maybe even more today, when it is clearly not a given that they will have a reasonable amount of confidence.

There will be occasions when someone has suffered a crime where it is either obvious that they are not looking for an investigation or that there are no investigative opportunities and you just have to be up front about that.

You have to intervene really, really strongly with people who are habitual knife-carriers, that includes stop and search definitely, you have to keep them locked up.

But I have on occasion suddenly realised that some men feel slightly threatened by, or slightly baffled by, or confused by, possibly even now, by having a woman in... a very powerful role.

There's definitely something about the impact of social media in terms of people being able to go from slightly angry with each other to 'fight' very quickly.

I am all about teams. I think I have probably got a reasonably relaxed style as a senior leader, I am pretty demanding, I am known as tough, not a soft touch, but I try to be friendly and I want my staff to feel they can come up and chat to me.

I want to bear down on violent crime, in all its aspects from terrorism to sexual offences but definitely knife and gun crime, particularly as it affects young people.

One of the things we do not want is to become a complete fortress. This is not going to happen with military on every street corner or armed police officers everywhere. We do not want that so we have to be intelligent in our response and to be proportionate in our response.

Scent is very important to me but it is the case that my colleagues think it is hilarious that I simply cannot smell, ever, the smell of cannabis.

Some male colleagues, just as in accountancy, had doubts about whether women could perform some roles. There was a sense that women needed more protection or if men were out on the street they would be distracted by having to look after a female colleague.

When I joined there was probably one woman in the CID office and one in the crime squad and just two of us on a team of about 40 or 50 people.

London has a 50 per cent female population so we want to aim long term to have 50 per cent female officers. It's good for police to reflect the public that we serve.

That is the great thing about policing, you do have a lot of responsibility very early and you have got to make decisions, sometimes life and death decisions, very quickly and there is something about putting a uniform on and thinking 'people are looking to me to make decisions and to look after them' that makes you feel capable.

It is not in my mind's eye that all officers will be carrying a Taser but we should have people able to deploy it.

I would like to see even more women coming in to all roles, particularly into the specialisms like firearms and public order, I would like to see women being really confident and comfortable in those roles.