04/10/2026
The rank of Commander was introduced after many years of growth and re-organisation within the Metropolitan Police.
The Metropolitan Police District was initially organised in 1829 into five Divisions. One Company was allotted to each Division with each Company subdivided into sixteen Parties. Each Party consisted of one Sergeant and nine Constables with four Sergeant's parties in turn forming an Inspector's Party. Each Company was under the command of a Superintendent and was comprised of four Inspectors, sixteen Sergeants and 144 Police Constables. A sixth Division consisted of a smaller Company attached to the Office of the Commissioners. By 1930, the number of Divisions reached seventeen and, with the expansion of the Metropolitan Police District in 1839 — twenty-four.
In 1869, following recommendations arising from an 1868 inquiry which had identified the excessive centralisation of the Metropolitan Police and the need for greater delegation and supervision, the twenty-four Divisions were grouped into Districts. Each of the resulting four districts was placed under a newly appointed District Superintendent, creating an intermediate level of command between the Divisional Superintendents and the Assistant Commissioners. The arrangement was intended to improve the coordination, inspection and administration of the Force, although the District Superintendents remained closely tied to the central administration at Scotland Yard.
To address the persistent centralised nature within the organisation of the Force each of the Districts was placed under the control of the local Senior Officer in 1886. These Officers were henceforth designated as Chief Constables, thereby introducing that rank into the Metropolitan Police.
This structure remained in place until a further reorganisation in 1933, when responsibility for the four Districts was assigned to the Deputy Assistant Commissioners (DAC). The Officers in command of Districts who did not already hold the rank of DAC — then holding the rank of Chief Constable — were promoted to DAC in order to assume these responsibilities.
The Commander level ranks of District Commander and Deputy Commander were eventually introduced with changes in the titles of the Metropolitan Police ranks of Chief Constable and Deputy Assistant Commissioner announced on 16th March 1946. The four Deputy Assistant Commissioners in charge of Districts were retitled as District Commanders and the Chief Constables were renamed as Deputy Commanders. The pay of a Deputy Commander was set at £1,050 a year, rising to £1,200 at five years. For a Commander, the annual pay was £1,375 rising to £1,575 at five years.
Additional reform in 1968 abolished the District command structure altogether, which removed the need for the roles of District Commanders and their deputies. However, it did not abolish the rank of Commander, which has since become more formalised and continued in the Metropolitan Police to the present day.
Due to increasing cooperation between the Metropolitan Police and provincial forces, further change came in 1969 but not in the form of new ranks this time, only in those who held the existing positions. In April of that year three ranks of the Metropolitan Police were regraded as it had been found that, when visiting other forces, Officers of the Metropolitan Police were often at a disadvantage as the provincial Officer performing the same job held a more senior rank. The result of a review by the Home Secretary set forth that Commanders of the Metropolitan Police would thenceforth be known as Deputy Assistant Commissioners, Chief Superintendents became Commanders and Superintendents were to be called Chief Superintendents.
Within the Metropolitan Police, the rank of Commander sits below that of Deputy Assistant Commissioner and above Chief Superintendent. By 1981, there were fifty-six Commander posts below the sixteen posts for Deputy Assistant Commissioner and above the twenty-two for Chief Superintendent. The position was now compensated with an annual salary of £17,877.
The number of Commander and Chief Superintendent posts were substantially reduced with the introduction of a two-tier structure consisting of eight Areas and seventy-five territorial divisions finalised in 1987. With this organisational shift more than fifty posts were removed across the two ranks.
Under The Police (Amendment) Regulations, 1995, the rank of Commander became a statutory rank in the rank structure of the Metropolitan Police and the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act, 2011, now requires the Metropolitan Police to have one or more Commanders appointed.
As of February 2024, there were eleven members of the Metropolitan Police with the substantive rank of Commander. They commanded the CTPHQ Counter Terrorism Policing Headquarters, Frontline Policing Headquarters, MO1 Met Ops Chief Officer Team, Professionalism Headquarters and Specialist Operations COG. There are currently at least twenty-one Commanders including six Temporary Commanders. The rank of Commander equates to that of Assistant Chief Constable in the provincial Police forces.
