THE senior police officer at the centre of the operation that led to the death of Jean Charles de Menezes had ordered him to be taken alive, it was reported last night.

Commander Cressida Dick instructed officers to “detain” the Brazilian moments before he was shot at Stockwell Tube station.

The 27-year-old electrician had emerged from a block of flats connected with one of the failed London suicide bombers which had been under surveillance by undercover police.

Details of the exact commands between Commander Dick and the various police teams during the operation are likely to come under intense scrutiny.

The 44-year-old Oxford graduate was Gold Command — in charge of the firearms unit — on Friday, July 22 when the shooting happened.

Commander Dick, one of the Metropolitan Police’s most senior women officers, is considered as a potential future chief constable.

She would have been responsible for setting in train Operation Kratos, the new tactics allowing officers to kill suspected suicide bombers.

During the operation she was based in the control room at Scotland Yard, keeping track of officers’ movements.

Commander Dick is well respected within the force and there is widespread sympathy for the Commander, who is reported to have been “devastated” by the shooting.

She worked her way up from beat officer in the West End of London and is known as Cress by colleagues.

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