There’s a serious problem with this image of NSW’s top police officer

Girls can’t be what they don’t see, or so the adage goes. But if girls considering careers in law enforcement have been watching the travails of the state’s first female police commissioner, they probably would have seen enough to abandon the idea.

Not only was Karen Webb’s much-vaunted five-year appointment cut awkwardly short, but the clunky handling of her departure has left the force rudderless for months, without the reassuring leadership a commissioner is supposed to provide.

Webb was given all the ceremonial trappings as she was marched off the Goulburn parade ground on Friday: marching bands, mounted officers in fancy white hats, and earnest salutes from newly sworn constables, as Premier Chris Minns looked on.

It’s been a tortured goodbye. Her departure – almost two years before her contract was due to end – was announced in May (the official line is she resigned, but police sources say Minns encouraged her to go), and she hasn’t actually sat in the chair since June, when she handed over the reins to an acting replacement.

Her final day is not until September 30.

Usually, a new commissioner is appointed while the old one is still there, to ensure a smooth handover. But this time there has been a parade of acting commissioners, with deputies subbing in for each other when the official acting commissioner, Peter Thurtell, is away.

Over that period, there’s been a series of shootings in public places; this week alone there were two, including of a man outside a popular Forest Lodge pub.

Citizens being gunned down in the open makes people nervous, particularly when they’re in high-traffic places like pubs. One of the key roles of the police commissioner is to provide reassurance; a familiar face and steady hand that people trust more than a politician’s.

One of the criticisms of Webb was that her timidity in front of the cameras left her struggling to provide that reassurance. Yet the revolving roster of commissioners since her departure has highlighted the leadership void, both for the public and for the police themselves.

Rumours abound about when Webb’s replacement will be announced. It may be as soon as Monday, now that she has had her ceremonial farewell. The government may wait until after budget estimates on September 3, so the decision is less likely to be raked over by MPs.

The favourite is deputy commissioner Mal Lanyon, who is on secondment to the Reconstruction Authority. If he’s the one waiting in the wings, the delay might be a tactful one; there was no love lost between Lanyon and Webb.

The new appointee will inherit a challenging job. History shows it can be a treacherous tightrope to walk – right-wing media on one side, demanding greater toughness; critics of that same toughness on the left, concerned about police abusing their powers; and politicians panicking whenever one of those camps gets loud enough to threaten their electoral prospects.

But the most uncomfortable spot for a NSW Police commissioner can be the police executive offices themselves, which are notorious for leaks and factions and vaulting ambitions.

Webb’s three-year tenure was characterised by constant attacks, particularly about her public performance and her media decisions. She was particularly damaged by her response to two deep crises that shattered public confidence in NSW Police, both involving the deaths of civilians allegedly at the hands of serving police officers.

In both cases, she was criticised for her failure to front the public soon enough, and when she did front the microphones, for the language she used; “Haters like to hate,” she said, quoting Taylor Swift.

She was arguably the most heavily criticised police commissioner since Peter Ryan, whose job involved cleaning up the force after the Wood Royal Commission (before then, criticism of NSW Police was more likely to involve issues of corruption than public speaking prowess).

There are debates over whether the judgments of Webb were fair or not. Some argue she was given a hard time because the famously blokey police culture within the NSW Police Force still can’t embrace femininity, or an approach to the job that doesn’t involve putting oneself front and centre; others believe she simply wasn’t the right leader and didn’t have the right skills.

While rumours intensify that Lanyon will be anointed, there is only one certainty about her replacement; it will be a man.

Every one of the six interviewees for the top job was a bloke. That there were no women even within striking distance of the commissionership is an indication that despite Webb’s tenure, or even because of it, prospects for women in the NSW Police Force have not improved.

Six years ago, women made up 27.6 per cent of police officers in NSW. In 2020, it was 28 per cent, and now it’s 28.2; a marginal increase at best.

A review of the force by former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick in 2019 found more than half of female officers agreed it was difficult for women to achieve the rank of commissioner, mostly due to caring responsibilities, an issue the force has still not fixed. Only 8 per cent of men thought it would be difficult for a bloke to rise to the top.

Turns out they were right. The NSW Police Force will soon be back in its comfort zone, with a man at the helm.

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