Bratton: 'I keep my options open' *

The Sun newspaper in the U.K. continues to call LAPD chief William Bratton "a leading contender to replace ousted Sir Ian Blair as London’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner." In a story today from Los Angeles by U.S. editor Emily Smith (pictured with Bratton), the tabloid reminds readers "The Sun brought Chief Bratton to the UK to attend our summit on Broken Britain last week" and claims an exclusive interview about the complexity of the London policing job.

Chief Bratton, 61, has already advised London Mayor Boris Johnson on how to tackle inner-city crime....

He said, “It is probably, at this time, the most complex police job in the world — bar none. You have a country and a city which is probably the most significant terrorist target in the world. You have a city and a country that is very on edge about the spate of youth violence and stabbings. You have a very unsettled political situation — a historic one with a city government seeking to exert more influence over the Met when that role was traditionally done by the national government. And there are any number of controversies in play at the moment."

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“I have been doing this for 40 years. I have worked in two of the world’s most significant cities — New York and Los Angeles — and I can safely say that, today, the Met job is probably the most challenging.

“And it will get increasingly so in the next year or so...."

But Chief Bratton is more tight-lipped about his chances for the top Met job. He said: “I don’t think there’s any shortage of home-grown talent in the UK and I’ve got a great job here — but I always keep my options open.”

* Fixed: Link added, left it off by mistake.