London's Metropolitan Police Service named Cressida Dick, 56, its first female commissioner on Thursday. The police force, known as Scotland Yard, has a history dating to 1829. Photo by Will Oliver/EPA

Feb. 23 (UPI) -- London's Metropolitan Police Service, also known as Scotland Yard, named Cressida Dick the first female commissioner in its history on Thursday.

Dick, 56, has a 31-year career with the 43,000-member police force and was head of counter-terrorism operations from 2011-14, a period which included London's 2012 Summer Olympics. She left the force in 2014, becoming the British Foreign Service director general, after tensions with the departing commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.


Sources close to London Mayor Said Khan said that in interviews, Dick presented the best vision for reforming the police force.

Scotland Yard, an organization dating to 1829, faces a budget crisis in addition to problems normally associated with investigations of crime in major cities. Dick's police career was marked by a 2005 case in which she commanded an operation in which an innocent man, believed by police to be a terrorist, was shot and killed. A jury exonerated her, but some thought the incident would end her career advancement, the newspaper The Guardian said Thursday.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said in a statement that Dick "now takes on one of the most demanding, high-profile and important jobs in U.K. policing, against the backdrop of a heightened terror alert and evolving threats from fraud and cybercrime. Cressida's skills and insight will ensure the Metropolitan police adapt to the changing patterns of crime in the 21st century and continue to keep communities safe across London and the U.K."

Prime Minister Theresa May praised Dick's "outstanding record of public service" and "exceptional qualities needed to meet the challenge of leading the Met."