Assistant Commissioner (AC) Helen King has announced her retirement from London's Metropolitan Police Service to be the first police officer elected to an Oxbridge College.
AC King will take up the post of Principal of St Anne's College at Oxford University in April 2017.
Assistant Commissioner Helen King
Assistant Commissioner Helen King
Assistant Commissioner Helen King, said: "I'm very proud to have been a police officer for over thirty years. I'm even more proud to have spent the final years of my career as a member of the Met as the senior officer leading Territorial Policing and then Professionalism.
"That pride emanates from what I see my colleagues achieving for the public of London, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. My colleagues do their jobs with courage, professionalism, integrity and compassion quietly demonstrated in the most difficult and often most frustrating of circumstances. They quite simply do an amazing job at keeping the people of London safe.
"I am also very proud to have been successful in obtaining my new post, an infrequent opportunity at a college that means a huge amount to me. It is the college where I did my undergraduate degree.
"As I move into the Higher Education sector, I am excited about the opportunity to be passionate and determined in ensuring that talented and committed young people who don't get a privileged start in life have a demonstrably fair chance to obtain some of the best university education in the world.
"I believe that policing is immeasurably stronger, more professional, more accountable and more compassionate than when I joined and I hope I played some small part in that. I know the men and women of the Met will keep up their hard work on behalf of all Londoners."
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said: "I would like to thank Helen for her dedicated service to policing and wish her the very best of luck in her new role. I am so proud of Helen and for policing that she has been selected to St.Anne's College, Oxford University. This is an incredible achievement and we enjoy a little reflected glory in the Met.
"As the Met's Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing, Helen oversaw great change as we reshaped the Met to reduce crime and make saving. She played a key part in our achieving both. More recently as Assistant Commissioner for Professionalism, she has begun preparing the Met for what will be challenging public inquiries. Her work here will put the organisation in good stead in the years to come. She has been a great asset to policing and I know she will be just as valued by her new colleagues."
Helen King (St Anne's, PPE, 1983) joined the Cheshire Constabulary as a Police Constable in 1986 under the Graduate Entry Scheme. She worked in uniform and CID roles across the County.
In 2005, Helen transferred to Merseyside Police as an Assistant Chief Constable. In 2009, she took over the Force's Operations portfolio, responsible for Merseyside's six policing areas. She was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in the New Year's Honours list 2011.
In April 2012, Helen returned to Cheshire Constabulary as the Deputy Chief Constable and was responsible for performance management, governance, standards and communications.
Helen joined the Metropolitan Police Service as Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing in June 2014 with oversight of policing in London's 32 Boroughs and was responsible for Roads Policing and Criminal Justice. Since April 2016, she has held the position of Assistant Commissioner for Professionalism which includes responsibility for Training and Professional Standards.