The toxic web that toppled NSW's first female police commissioner
For most of her 3½ years as NSW Police Commissioner, Karen Webb hasn't felt safe in the job. There was always a fear that haters, as she once put it in an ill-judged reference to Taylor Swift, were leaking against her, that powerful sections of the media wanted her gone, and that the criticism of her weak public performances dented her support among the troops.
Recently, that feeling must have ramped up. There has been speculation swirling for months that the premier's office has been distancing itself from her, and that Webb had lost the support of the powerful, Labor-aligned NSW Police Association (the association did not comment). A story that appeared in The Daily Telegraph in January, saying she was considering early retirement, is said to have taken Webb by surprise.
At least she now has some certainty. On Wednesday, Webb announced her resignation.
The government insists the decision was Webb's. The premature sacking of the first female police commissioner would be, as its media advisers would say, bad optics. And there was a time when senior people in the government quietly described the attacks on Webb as sexist. But several police sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity so they could talk freely, say that in the end, she was explicitly encouraged to go.
The timing was highly unusual; commissioners, even unpopular or unhappy ones, usually see out their tenure. When asked by this masthead in March if she planned to leave early, Webb said she had more work to do. No police boss has left so prematurely since the passing of the Police Act of 1990, which set their incumbency at five years. Before Webb, the shortest-serving commissioner in the past 40 years was Mick Fuller, who was only two months shy of a full term.
The strongest contender for the job is Mal Lanyon, a deputy commissioner who has been on secondment to the NSW Reconstruction Authority since April last year.
Lanyon has long been touted as a rival for the commissioner's job. He was in the final three candidates when Webb was selected in late 2021 but was ruled out, sources close to the process say, amid concerns about the optics, again, of an incident in which he was found drunk in Goulburn earlier that year while visiting the academy for an attestation, and allegedly swore at paramedics.
Lanyon still has strong support from some parts of the NSW Police Force and sections of the media. Webb's backers have been worried about his influence. His move to the authority was interpreted as an attempt to give her clear air, amid persistent criticism about her performance – particularly in relation to her timidity in front of cameras – and constant scuttlebutt about whether Lanyon should replace her.
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