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Hunt is on for the Met's deputy commissioner
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent29 Jan 2009
A SEARCH to find a deputy at Scotland Yard is to get under way in the coming weeks after Sir Paul Stephenson, the previous deputy, was appointed Met Commissioner.
Significantly, whoever gets the job will be favourite to go on and become Britain's most senior officer - for the third consecutive time in recent years the deputy has stepped up to take the commissioner's role.
Among the candidates are likely to be Tim Godwin, an experienced Met Assistant Commissioner who is Acting Deputy Commissioner.
There is also speculation that officials will look outside the Met to fill the £204,000-a-year job.Possible candidates could include Jane Stichbury, a former Met officer who is one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary, and Sara Thornton, chief constable of Thames Valley.
Both are well respected and hugely experienced senior officers who could go on to take the top job and become the first woman Met Commissioner.
Another possible candidate is Assistant Commissioner John Yates, the officer who led the cash-for-honours inquiry.
The deputy's role will have to be filled before the Metropolitan Police Authority can start the process for selecting senior officers including the post of Assistant Commissioner in charge of Central Operations.
Reader views (2)
In line with Harriet Harmans latest wheeze on equality I would stake everything on it being a woman. Men don`t even bother to apply. You will only be wasting your time. You only have to look around and see women, who have spent their entire careers in Human Resources or the like, being promoted to chief officer rank in the police service purely on the basis of their gender. It ticks all the right boxes and ingratiates the Police Authorities with Her Majesty`s Inpectors of constabularies and the Home Office who after all said and done are in charge of the purse strings, knighthoods, Queens Police Medals etc.
- Brian Gare, Gorleston Norfolk, 29/01/2009 15:19
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I wish the press would stop all this obsession with personalities in its coverage of policing. Our police officers seem to enjoy getting their names in the headlines for a variety of reasons, good and bad. Can we just hope that whoever is appointed is good at the job and isn't there to fulfil PC driven quotas. Whoever it is will have been fully indoctrinated by Nu-Labor and ACPO in any case.
- Ranter, Maidstone, UK, 29/01/2009 14:10
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