Responding to the appointment of Sir Mark Rowley as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Centre for London Chief Executive Nick Bowes said:

Congratulations to Sir Mark Rowley on his appointment as the next Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Given the huge job on his hands, Mark is going to need to draw on all his vast experience. But a new Commissioner on its own is not enough – radical reform of the city’s police, it’s relationship with all of London’s communities and the kinds of people it recruits into its ranks is crucial if the flagging confidence of Londoners is to be reversed.

This must be accompanied by a full restructure so that national policing functions are removed, leaving London’s police to police London, solely accountable to the Mayor. This presents a once in a life time opportunity to give London a police force fit for the 21st century – it needs grabbing with both hands.