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Hey journalists! I know “UK’s Top Cop” has a beautiful tabloid ring to it and trips off the tongue nicely in a broadcast script - but it’s inaccurate and misleading. It’s a misnomer, even if a common one. Cressida Dick is not “the UK’s most senior police officer.”
She’s effectively a Chief Constable, albeit of the largest force. It’s just the Met think they’re a bit special and don’t like to call their most senior officer a Chief Constable so gave it a special name. But to all intents and purposes, that’s what she is.
Her authority, in general terms, is within the Met’s area. And most notably she has no jurisdiction in Scotland or Northern Ireland (Wales too? Someone correct me here). So if you really, really have to brand her the “top cop” then it’s of England - not the UK as a whole.
(There’s no mention in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, or the preceding Police (Scotland) Act 1967 of the Met Commissioner having powers or special privileges or jurisdiction in Scotland. Though again, please do correct me if I’m mistaken)
Yes, the Met Commissioner assumes responsibility for things like Royal protection and anti-terrorism. But that’s a virtue of their location and the resources at their disposable. Not because they’re “more senior.”
(The Met Commissioner wouldn’t approve an anti-terror operation in Birmingham, for example, without liaising with the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police first.)
It’d be like calling Fran Unsworth “the UK’s top journalist” just because she runs Britain’s biggest news organisation. Or Andy Roe “the UK’s top firefighter” just because he’s in charge of more firefighters than anyone else in England.
If you really want to call someone “the UK’s most senior police officer” then it would probably be best used in reference to the current chair of the National Police Chief’s Council, a rotating position which is currently held by Martin Hewitt QPM.
Oh. And while we’re at it. London’s Metropolitan Police is *not* “the oldest police force in the world.” That honour goes to Glasgow 
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/metropolitan-polices-proud-boast-sets-off-police-alarm-in-glasgow-778vg9pfw93
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/metropolitan-polices-proud-boast-sets-off-police-alarm-in-glasgow-778vg9pfw93
