Bernard Hogan-Howe was born in Sheffield. He has an MA in Law from Oxford University, a diploma in Applied Criminology and was awarded an MBA in Business Administration from Sheffield University. He has been awarded the Queens Police Medal.
After four years working in the health service, he joined South Yorkshire Police aged 22. He worked across the South Yorkshire area in uniform, CID, traffic and personnel. During this time he policed Doncaster’s mining community during the miners’ strikes.
In 1997, he joined Merseyside Police as ACC Community Affairs before taking responsibility for Area Operations in 1999. He was Gold Commander during the national Petrol Disputes of 2000/2001.
Mr Hogan-Howe joined the Metropolitan Police Service as Assistant Commissioner in July 2001, with responsibility for Human Resources. During this time he helped the Metropolitan Police to attain 20% growth, reaching 30,000 officers, the largest ever in the history of the Metropolitan Police.
He re-joined Merseyside Police in 2004 on appointment to Chief Constable, where he introduced the force Total Policing model focussing on crime, victims and professionalism. This approach led to crime reducing by a third, a 26% reduction in anti-social behaviour and the highest level of criminal asset recovery outside of London (more than £20 million over 3 years).
In October 2009 he was appointed Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary with responsibility for the London and National Office. This included inspections of the MPS, City, BTP, SOCA and PSNI. He was also lead HMI on thematic areas of policing such as the Olympics, counter terrorism and serious organised crime. Since January 2011 he has led the review of the national domestic extremism units.
He has vast experience in crime investigation and strategic leadership of major public events, public disorder and organised crime, particularly involving the use of firearms.
On 25th July 2011 Bernard became the Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service.
He was announced as the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service on 12th September 2011.