Bernard Hogan-Howe, Baron Hogan-Howe, (born 25 October 1957) is an English former police officer and was the head of London's Metropolitan Police as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2011 until 2017. Born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, Hogan-Howe joined the South Yorkshire Police in 1979, becoming District Commander of the Doncaster West area, as well as obtaining university qualifications in law and criminology. In 1997, he transferred to Merseyside Police as Assistant Chief Constable for Community Affairs, moving on to area operations. He then joined the Metropolitan Police as Assistant Commissioner for personnel, before being appointed Chief Constable of Merseyside Police. After two years as an Inspector of Constabulary, Hogan-Howe was briefly Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police before being appointed Commissioner in September 2011. Hogan-Howe was knighted in the

2013 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2013 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to policing.

Early life and career

Bernard Howe was born in Sheffield, the son of Bernard Howe. He attended Hinde House Comprehensive School, where he completed his A-levels. He was brought up single-handedly by his mother, whose surname of Hogan he later added by deed poll. After leaving school, he spent four years working as a lab assistant in the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

(NHS). He began his police career in 1979 with South Yorkshire Police and rose to be District Commander of the Doncaster West area. In 1997, he transferred to

Merseyside Police Merseyside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Merseyside in North West England. The service area is 647 square kilometres with a population of around 1.5 million. As of September 2017 the service has 3,484 police o ...

as Assistant Chief Constable for Community Affairs, moving onto area operations in 1999. Hogan-Howe then once again transferred this time to the Metropolitan Police as Assistant Commissioner for personnel, July 2001 – 2004. He was then appointed Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, 2005–9. Whilst still with South Yorkshire Police, he was identified as a high-flier and selected to study for a MA degree in

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

, which he began at the age of 28. He later went on to gain a postgraduate diploma in Applied Criminology from

Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Fitzwilliam College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college has origins from 1869, with the foundation of the Non-Collegiate Students Board, a venture intended to offer academically excellent students of all ...

, and an MBA from the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

. On Merseyside, Hogan-Howe had called for a "total war on crime" and argued that the health and safety case which was successfully brought against the Metropolitan Police after the de Menezes shooting was restrictive of allowing the police to do their work. He had also called for a review of the decision to downgrade

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

from a class B to a class C drug. He thereafter served as one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary, 2009–2011. On 18 July 2011, the Home Secretary announced Hogan-Howe's temporary appointment as Acting Deputy Commissioner following the resignation of the Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, and the appointment of the incumbent Deputy Commissioner as Acting Commissioner. During that period, a decision was made within the department of professional standards to use the Official Secrets Act to compel ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' to reveal its sources regarding the

News International phone hacking scandal Beginning in the 1990s, and going as far until its shutdown in 2011, employees of the now-defunct newspaper ''News of the World'' engaged in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories. Investi ...

. The order was swiftly rescinded five days prior to Hogan-Howe's formal term of office.

Commissioner

Hogan-Howe applied for the position of Commissioner himself in August 2011 along with other candidates, and was successful in being selected for the post on 12 September 2011 after appearing before a panel of the Home Secretary and the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current ...

and receiving the approval of the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, before he was formally appointed by the Queen, with effect from 26 September. In 2013, Hogan-Howe was criticised for defending police officers who had, according to an appeal court ruling, used " inhuman and degrading treatment", in breach of the Human Rights Act, when handling an autistic boy in a swimming pool. The criticism was specifically directed against the money spent on the appeal and his refusal to apologise and to improve training police officers for the humane treatment of disabled people. In September 2012, Hogan-Howe did ask an independent commission headed by Lord Adebowale to review cases where people with a mental illness died or were harmed after contact with police. The report arrived in May 2013 and contained severe criticism; Hogan-Howe responded to the commission's recommendations with a plan for change, announced in June 2014.

The 'Total Policing' vision

Hogan-Howe outlined his vision for 'Total Policing' in 2011 shortly after becoming Commissioner. This vision sought to promote total professionalism from the workforce, a total war on crime and total care for victims. It was hoped that the 'Total Policing' vision would benefit from a commitment to 'total technology' – involving the roll-out of new technology across the Met, including tablet computers, body worn video and a major overhaul of the Met's existing IT systems. In a question and answer session following his valedictory speech at the

Royal United Services Institute The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, Rusi) is a defence and security think tank with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1831 by the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley ...

in February 2017, Hogan-Howe expressed regret at having not embarked upon the IT programme earlier.

Historical sexual abuse cases

Hogan-Howe served as Commissioner in the aftermath of the

Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal In late 2012, it emerged that Jimmy Savile, a British media personality who had died the previous year, had sexually abused hundreds of people throughout his life, mostly children but some as old as 75, and mostly female. He had been well kn ...

in 2012, after which more allegations of historic sexual abuse were made to police and police began a following a guidance by Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary which said "the presumption that a victim should always be believed should be institutionalised". Operation Yewtree, which was set up by the Met following the Savile scandal, saw many celebrities arrested and repeatedly bailed without charge. As a result, then-Home Secretary

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Baroness May of Maidenhead (; ; born 1 October 1956), is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served as Home Secretar ...

proposed that bail time be limited to 28 days and Hogan-Howe supported the proposal. The 28-day limit came into effect in April 2017. Broadcaster Paul Gambaccini was arrested by Operation Yewtree police and spent a year on bail before being told he would not face charges. Gambaccini described Hogan-Howe as "the villain of my life" and that he "attempted to destroy my life and end my career for their own public relations purposes in a 100 per cent fraud". The Met launched Operation Midland in 2014 after Carl Beech, then known publicly under the pseudonym "Nick", alleged that several high-profile men had abused him and that he had witnessed them murder three boys. DS Kenny McDonald issued a statement in which he said that they believed Beech's allegations were "credible and true" but the probe was closed after 16 months when no evidence was found to corroborate the claims. Hogan-Howe initially refused to apologise to those wrongly accused by Beech, but did so after a report by Richard Henriques detailed numerous failings by the Met and found that those accused were victims of false allegations. After these failings, Hogan-Howe called for the Met to change their approach, and no longer automatically believe complainants. Beech was convicted of charges related to lying to the police in July 2019 and was sentenced to 18 years.

Position on ISIS supporters

Hogan-Howe was criticised in the wake of the 2015 Sousse attacks, after a father and his young daughter paraded at Parliament Square with the flag of

ISIS Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

(ISIL). Hogan-Howe supported his officers after they had refused to arrest the pair, and said that carrying an ISIS flag is 'not necessarily the worst thing in the world' and should not lead to an automatic arrest. This was contrary to an earlier statement by the then

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, who had written that "The position is clear. If people are walking around with ISIL flags or trying to recruit people to their terrorist cause, they will be arrested and their materials will be seized." Hogan-Howe was later supported by the Mayor of London,

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

, who said that 'we live in a free country' and that he did not support the banning of iconography associated with the extremist group.

Staff confidence in senior leadership of the Metropolitan Police

In 2014, an internal staff survey was conducted. In response to the question "I have confidence in the leadership provided by the senior leaders in the Met" only 1 in 5 respondents agreed, whilst 3 in 5 disagreed with this statement.

Stops interview to make arrest

In 2014, Hogan-Howe was taking part in an interview for the BBC when a taxi driver approached and said his passengers were refusing to pay and had stolen some money. Hogan-Howe and another police officer jumped into the taxi and chased the suspects. One of the suspects was located a short distance away and was arrested by Hogan-Howe.

Institutional racism

In June 2015, Hogan-Howe said there was some justification in claims that the Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist.

Retirement

In September 2016, Hogan-Howe announced that he planned to retire in February 2017.

Police Roll of Honour Trust

In November 2013, the then Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe took up the role of Patron of the national police charity the Police Roll of Honour Trust. He joined Sir Stephen House and Sir Hugh Orde as joint patrons.

Honours and awards

Hogan-Howe was awarded the

Queen's Police Medal The King's Police Medal (KPM) is awarded to police in the United Kingdom for gallantry or distinguished service. It was also formerly awarded within the wider British Empire, including Commonwealth countries, most of which now have their own hono ...

(QPM) in the 2003 Birthday Honours Hogan-Howe was knighted in the

for services to policing, being invested with the honour on 21 May 2013. Hogan-Howe's honours and decorations include:

UK Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal ribbon

Police Long Service and Good Conduct ribbon

On 14 November 2012, Hogan-Howe was awarded the

Honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

of Doctor of the University (DUniv) by

Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield station, Sheffield railway station, whil ...

. On 15 July 2013, Hogan-Howe was awarded an honorary doctorate of Laws (LLD) by the

. On 13 December 2022, Hogan-Howe was bestowed with an Honorary Doctorate from

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

. On 7 November 2017, Hogan-Howe was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

. He took the title Baron Hogan-Howe, of

in the County of South Yorkshire.

References

External links

Official Metropolitan Police profile''Debrett's People of Today''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hogan-Howe, Bernard 1957 births Living people Alumni of the University of Sheffield Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Chief Constables of Merseyside Police Commissioners of Police of the Metropolis Crossbench life peers Life peers created by Elizabeth II Knights Bachelor Assistant Commissioners of Police of the Metropolis English recipients of the Queen's Police Medal Metropolitan Police recipients of the Queen's Police Medal Inspectors of Constabulary Fellows of Merton College, Oxford People associated with Royal Holloway, University of London