Crime waits for no man: Met chief stops interview to personally make arrestSir Bernard Hogan-Howe breaks off from BBC radio spot in Tottenham to help minicab driver chase down alleged thiefIt might be a long time since the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, was a beat officer but old habits seemingly die hard, with the nation's top police officer interrupting a radio interview on Monday to chase down a thief in a taxi.
The 57-year-old, who last trekked the streets in uniform for his first police employer, the South Yorkshire force, was recording an interview for BBC London radio on Monday morning in Tottenham, north London, when he broke off to assist a minicab driver.
The driver said some passengers had refused to pay a fare and had then stolen his phone, according to the BBC. Hogan-Howe got into the taxi to chase the suspects.
A Metropolitan police tweet said: "Commissioner Hogan-Howe arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of theft @MPSHaringey this morning after being flagged down by local taxi driver."
A spokeswoman for the force said there would be more information later, after the commissioner had finished processing the arrested man, which he was doing himself. The BBC report said Hogan-Howe's bodyguard joined him in the minicab and arrested another suspect.
Hogan-Howe spent four years working as an NHS lab assistant before joining South Yorkshire police aged 22, where he was talent spotted and sent to study for an MA at Oxford University.
He was later an assistant chief constable and then chief constable at Merseyside police, also being assistant commissioner at the Met and part of the Inspectors of Constabulary, before becoming commissioner in 2011.
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