The chief of the Metropolitan Police is facing calls to resign after receiving criticism for the policing of last night's vigil to Sarah Everard, which ended in the arrest of four people.
Last night mainly female crowd were broken up and detained by mainly male officers at a peaceful vigil when darkness fell. Officers handcuffed women and removed them from crowds on Clapham Common in London on Saturday.
Response from the Met
Dame Cressida said she agreed on the need for a "sober review" and defended how officers responded to the "really big crowd".
"Quite rightly, as far as I can see, my team felt that this is now an unlawful gathering which poses a considerable risk to people's health," she said.
"I don't think anybody who was not in the operation can actually pass a detailed comment on the rightness and wrongness. This is fiendishly difficult policing."
She added: "What has happened makes me more determined, not less, to lead my organisation."
The home secretary has commissioned an independent investigation into the force's decisions; which were taken in the light of Covid restrictions.
Sources said both Priti Patel and the Prime Minister had confidence in Dame Cressida.
The disappearance and death of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive from South London, and the arrest of a police officer accused of murdering her sparked a national outcry in the United Kingdom over violence against women; and so far several protests and have been held to reflect public anger.
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