The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2020
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, talks to Jenni about working with women in the community to help combat violent crime. She wants both the victims of things like domestic abuse and knife crime and those around them have the confidence to speak out about what’s happening in their area. She’s been working closely with mothers who’ve lost children to violence and is exploring how the Force can work with them to help protect our young people from being drawn in to, or becoming victims of violent crime.
Stephanie Walker was 14 when she became pregnant. She was so impressed with how her midwife looked after her that she decided to go into the profession herself. Fourteen years on from the birth of her first child, Stephanie has just become fully qualified to deliver babies herself. She joins Jenni.
Lady Barbara Judge, whose death was announced today, was on the Woman’s Hour Power list in 2013. She was described as one of the best connected women in the country – a real pioneer for women in the law, banking and business. Her roles included Chairman of the Pension Protection Fund, Chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, and UK Business Ambassador. She spoke to Jane about her influences and career.
The history of women being empowered by the death of their husband is explored in the book Widows - Poverty, Power and Politics. The author and historian, Maggie Andrews, explains how many widows used their newfound autonomy and financial independence to improve women’s lives for the better.
Producer: Louise Corley Editor: Karen Dalziel
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, Jenny Murray, welcoming you to the Woman's Our Podcast on Wednesday, the second |
| 0:06.4 | of September. Good morning. In the 1980s, a television series told the story of a group |
| 0:12.7 | of widows who took over their husband's criminal activities after they died. It was updated |
| 0:18.3 | in a film two years ago. Well, the historian Maggie Andrews has found truth can be stranger |
| 0:24.2 | than fiction and has written widows, poverty, power and politics. Stephanie Walker had a |
| 0:31.8 | baby when she was 14, 14 years on. She is a midwife following in the footsteps of the midwife |
| 0:38.2 | who cared for her. And the serial, of course, the third episode of Amica's Stranded. |
| 0:43.9 | Now, the past few months have been anything but normal for everyone, but for none more |
| 0:49.9 | so than the Metropolitan Police. Lockdowns or significant falls in gun and knife crime in |
| 0:56.1 | the capital whilst domestic violence charities reported a huge increase in calls for help. |
| 1:03.2 | Then there's been the Black Lives Matter movement controversy over some offices kneeling |
| 1:07.6 | in support and, of course, overstop and search. At the centre of it all is the commissioner |
| 1:13.4 | of the Metropolitan Police, Dame, Cresider, Dick. Commissioner, how has the pandemic |
| 1:19.0 | influenced the way you work? Well, a great deal, of course. Good morning. And I should start by |
| 1:27.0 | just saying it's been a terribly difficult time for London and for the whole country. And, |
| 1:32.9 | you know, well, so many thousands of Londoners have lost their lives and other people's lives |
| 1:38.2 | have been turned upside down and it remains a very worrying time for people. I'm very proud of |
| 1:45.6 | the people of the Met because they carried on. As other people were, you know, obviously I'm |
| 1:54.2 | quite properly staying at home. They were out on the streets. We stayed very resilient and we've |
| 1:59.6 | had, you know, very low absences. And as you said, we saw some changes in crime patterns and we |
| 2:05.8 | took advantage of that to make lots of arrests. Same numbers as usual, actually, whilst changing |
| 2:12.5 | the way we deliver the service, being, you know, COVID aware in all ways. We continue to arrest |
... |
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