Paddick joined the
Metropolitan Police Service in 1976, living in
Highbury and
Limehouse while he worked for four years as a
Constable in
Holloway. Rising through the ranks, he served as a response team officer, community officer, detective, and as a member of the
Territorial Support Group (commonly referred to as the TSG or riot squad). Paddick was a sergeant on the front line during the
1981 Brixton riot, an experience that shaped his attitudes about confrontational police action and strengthened his belief in
community policing. He was appointed
Inspector in
Fulham in 1983,
Chief Inspector of the Personnel Department of
New Scotland Yard in 1986, a staff officer in 1991, and Chief Inspector in
Brixton in 1993. Paddick retired from the police force on 31 May 2007. He is currently a
Visiting Fellow of
Ashridge Business School near
Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, where he lectures on leadership, change management and diversity. He also attacked MFJ chairman Alex Owolade who was subsequently sacked from his employment with Lambeth London Borough Council. At around this time, the national press also began coverage of the pilot cannabis programme in Brixton where officers were instructed not to arrest or charge people who were found to be in possession of
cannabis. They were instead to issue on-the-spot warnings and confiscate the drugs. Although Paddick is credited with the idea, the pilot programme was sanctioned by the
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis,
Sir John Stevens. Paddick argued that the policy allowed his officers to deal with cannabis quickly and informally, freeing them to concentrate on heroin and
crack cocaine offences, as well as other offences such as street robbery and burglary, which he and others felt were affecting the quality of life in Lambeth to a greater extent. "[P]olice officers said they weren't prepared any longer to drop cannabis down the drain because one of their colleagues had been arrested by internal investigators apparently for doing just that. They were going to arrest everybody they found even with the smallest amount of cannabis. I couldn't have allowed that to happen. They would have been doing nothing else." In fact, he had written that "the concept of anarchy has always appealed to me", but that he was "not sure everyone would behave well if there were no laws and no system." Following the controversy, Paddick was transferred to an intelligence position and the allegations were investigated by the
Crown Prosecution Service. His transfer led to public rallies in Lambeth in his support. The CPS decided in late 2002 that no charges would be brought. In November 2003, Paddick was promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing. In a December 2003
out-of-court settlement, the
Mail on Sunday accepted that their story was false, apologised, and paid damages. The situation did, however, encourage the
British government to re-evaluate its policies with regard to drugs, and reclassifying cannabis from a class B to a class C drug was suggested. Subsequently, the law was altered in February 2004. In September 2007 Paddick commented: "I always felt like a fish out of water in the police, not just on gay issues but generally. I was a very counter-cultural senior officer. I'm very non-hierarchical and got into trouble for insisting on people calling me by my first name. I was trying to effect the most difficult change there is in an organisation, which is a change of culture – to try to make it more liberal, more understanding of difference." In March 2006 it was revealed that Paddick had consulted libel lawyers in connection with statements issued by
Scotland Yard. In verbal and written statements to the
Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) on their investigations into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, he had stated that a member of the
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair's private office team believed the wrong man had been targeted just six hours after the shooting. This was contrary to statements made at the time. When this allegation became public following an unauthorised disclosure, Scotland Yard issued a statement claiming that the officer alleged to have believed this [Paddick] "has categorically denied this in his interview with, and statement to, the IPCC investigators". The statement continued that they "were satisfied that whatever the reasons for this suggestion being made, it is simply not true". Paddick's interpretation of this statement was that it accused him of lying. On 28 March 2006, Paddick accepted a statement from the Metropolitan Police that it "did not intend to imply" a senior officer had misled the probe into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said "any misunderstanding is regretted" and that Paddick had accepted its "clarification" and considered the matter closed. In addition, on 26 November 2007 in
The Independent Paddick was asked if Commissioner Ian Blair should have resigned over the de Menezes case. His response was: "Yes. The public allows the police to use force on the understanding that someone will be held to account if something goes wrong. An innocent man was killed by the police and in the absence of any individual officer being held to account, the person at the top should take responsibility." ==Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London==