Reforming deputy is next Met police chief

The police chief whose radical ideas have transformed policing was named yesterday as the next commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Sir Ian Blair, 51, now deputy head of the Met, takes his post in February.

The police chief whose radical ideas have transformed policing was named yesterday as the next commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Sir Ian Blair, 51, now deputy head of the Met, takes his post in February.

The Oxford graduate said his priorities would include fighting terrorism, making neighbourhoods safer, and cutting serious crime, particularly murders involving mentally ill attackers.

Other reforms he plans are understood to include "special-ist" officers, trained for a single role, such as firearms or murder detection, and a more radical approach to the recruitment of ethnic minority officers.

Sir Ian joined the Met in 1974 and rose from the ranks to be Chief Constable of Surrey by 1998. He became Met deputy commissioner in 2000.