Commissioner Ian Dyson

The head of the City of London Police traditionally holds the rank of Commissioner. With the exception of the Metropolitan Police Service, which has its own Commissioner, all other UK police forces have a Chief Constable at their head.

Ian Dyson has spent most of his life in London. He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1983, working in many different areas including crime and drug squads, vice and strategic planning. For 11 years, he was a public order cadre trained senior officer and has extensive experience of commanding the policing of large public events.

In June 2008 he joined Surrey Police as Assistant Chief Constable, overseeing some of the highest confidence levels in the country and improving neighbourhood policing.

Ian joined the City of London Police as Commander in September 2010. He led on organisational change and on economic crime, expanding the force’s national fraud responsibilities. He was also the National Police Lead for Contact Management and led the national roll-out of the 101 non-emergency number.

Two years later he was promoted to Assistant Commissioner. He led cultural change, leadership and development within the force, embedding staff empowerment and innovation. His portfolio covered:

  • performance management
  • business continuity
  • the transformation programme
  • strategic development.

He was promoted to Commissioner on 3 January 2016.

In June 2016 Ian stepped up further from his information assurance portfolio and took National Policing Lead for the Information Management and Operational Requirements Coordination Committee.

He was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in the 2016 New Year Honours.

Assistant Commissioner Alistair Sutherland

Alistair Sutherland joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 1986 and served his early career in operational roles in Hounslow and Kensington spending time in uniform roles and within crime squads tackling burglary, robbery and drugs supply. As an Inspector he worked at Notting Hill and again at Hounslow leading uniform teams in both Neighbourhood Policing and Emergency response roles.

As a Chief Inspector he served at Lambeth Borough in South London in charge of policing operations to deal with emergency response, neighbourhoods, partnership and crime reduction. At this time in 2003 he began to serve as one of the Met’s senior officer cadre in charge of policing major public order events across London including sporting and ceremonial events, demonstrations and the annual Notting Hill Carnival.

On promotion to Superintendent and subsequently Chief Superintendent he was asked to remain within Lambeth Borough having forged excellent community and partnership links with the diverse communities around Brixton and Kennington and was successful in continually driving down crime and anti social behaviour during a five and a half year tenure.

In 2009 he was asked to set up a new unit that would take responsibility for the command and control of police firearms operations following the publication of recommendations from the Stockwell Inquiry into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and subsequent to this posting took charge of SCO19 Specialist Firearms Unit for a three year period. During this time he took on significant command roles at high profile public events including commanding the firearms security and response at the Royal Wedding 2011 and the London 2012 Olympic Games.

He was promoted to Commander in July 2014 and took on the role of Commander for Royalty, Diplomatic and Specialist Protection.

He joined City of London Police in April 2016 as Assistant Commissioner.

Commander Karen Baxter

Current role

Commander Karen Baxter joined the City of London Polices Economic Crime Directorate in July 2018 after transferring from The Police Service of Northern Ireland.

As the Head of Economic Crime within the City of London she oversees a range of operational units, each focused on complex and specialist aspects of economic crime. These include investigations into:

  • serious fraud
  • money laundering
  • overseas anti-corruption
  • intellectual property Crime
  • cyber protection
  • insurance fraud
  • asset recovery.

She is also responsible for The Economic Crime Academy which provides training and accreditation to a range of policing, law enforcement and private agencies.

The City of London is the lead force for Economic Crime and Commander Baxter coordinates that response across UK policing. As part of this portfolio, she oversees national services such as:

  • Action Fraud
  • National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre
  • National Fraud Intelligence Bureau
  • Economic Crime Victim Care Unit (that seeks to enhance the service victims of economic crime receive from policing).

Her vision is to work with partners to disrupt the activity of criminals across the UK and to improve the effectiveness of the policing response at a local, regional and national level.

Previous achievements

Commander Baxter started her career in the Royal Ulster Constabulary in January 1992 spending a significant part of her service managing serious and complex criminal investigations.

As Detective Inspector overseeing the review of child abuse and rape enquiries, her work resulted in the establishment of dedicated rape crime units and public protection units across Northern Ireland. This  significantly improved the quality of service to victims of sexual offences and led to the formation of the ‘Rowan’ sexual assault referral centre at Antrim.

As the Detective Chief Inspector and Senior Investigating Officer of the Major Investigation Team she led a number of high profile murder, kidnap and terrorism investigations through to prosecution.

In September 2011 she worked with external agencies to introduce the ‘One Punch’ campaign to PSNI raising awareness of the risks of assault and street violence. For her work on this campaign she was awarded the British Association of Women in Policing (BAWP) Award and the International Association of Women in Policing Award (IAWP).

Through her work on the Terrorism Investigation Unit within PSNI she worked tirelessly to promote peace in Northern Ireland, working with a range of agencies locally and globally to deliver interventions resulting in a series of high profile convictions.

Karen has a BSc in Applied Social Policy and has a Masters with the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

Temporary Commander David Evans

As a graduate in IT, Dai joined the City of London Police in 1996. He served his probationary period at Snow Hill before moving into CID.

The majority of his career to date has been served in detective roles at all ranks between Constable and Chief Superintendent, including periods in Economic Crime, Special Branch, Major Crime and Covert Policing.

As a Detective Superintendent and a trained Senior Investigating Officer, he has led successful investigations into murder, rape, blackmail and drug importation and distribution. He is also a trained kidnap & extortion SIO and crisis and kidnap negotiator.

In 2014, he led the UK response to the MH17 air crash in Ukraine in his role as a Senior Identification Manager. He continues to undertake this role today, representing HM Coroner to families based in the UK.

As a directorate head for the City of London Police, he has been responsible for a wide portfolio including force intelligence, command and control, operational planning and information security.

In more recent times, he has taken on an increased number of command roles as a Gold Commander, coordinating the City Police response to large scale ceremonial events and public order. He was also the senior officer coordinating the force’s response to the 2017 London Bridge terrorist incident.

Dai took over the commander portfolio on a temporary basis in May 2019 in which he leads the operational activity of the force and, amongst other things, the force’s Secure City programme which aspires to make the Square Mile the safest city in the world.