Karen Webb has again been caught on the back foot when she should be instilling confidence

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb says questions over her leadership are “offensive”. Rather than attacking critics, she should lift her game in public communication, writes James O’Doherty.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb has a major perception problem; time and again she has been caught on the defensive when she should have been on the front foot.

How many chances should the state’s top cop get to lift her game in communicating with the public?

The Police Commissioner on Monday declared criticisms of her leadership were “offensive”.

But instead of attacking journalists, perhaps Webb should look at her own response in times of crisis.

As Commissioner, Webb is supposed to be the figurehead of the Police. She rarely fronts the media to speak to the public; when she does, it is clear why.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb said questions of her leadership are “offensive” after Upper House MP and former cop Rod Roberts accused her of going into “hiding”. Picture: NCA NewsWire

She now stands accused of going into “hiding” over her delay in fronting the public after one of her own was charged with murder.

Webb was publicly absent amid the frantic search for Luke Davies and Jesse Baird last week. It then took two days after Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon was charged for the police boss to break her silence and express her “heartfelt condolences” to the men’s families.

Webb argues she was tied up at budget estimates on Friday and attended a sunrise service in Coogee on Saturday.

On Monday morning she revealed that she had tasked Victorian Police with reviewing how a serving NSW police officer had access to his firearm out of work hours, which detectives say was used in the killing of the Sydney couple.

Police are still searching for the bodies of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird. Picture: Instagram

Webb on Monday left it to her Deputy Commissioner David Hudson to provide operational details of the murder investigation, before lashing out at suggestions she had been caught short.

As Upper House MP Rod Roberts told The Daily Telegraph, it’s Webb’s job to “instil public confidence in the NSW Police Force – If the public has no confidence in the police force themselves, and that always comes from the top, things start to unravel”.

Her lacklustre response to the alleged murder of Mr Davies and Mr Baird is the latest in a string of bungles.

Floral tributes for Jesse Baird and Luke Davies at their home on Brown Street in Paddington. Picture: Richard Dobson

First, there was the response to the tasering of 95-year-old great grandmother Clare Nowland, when police took two days to acknowledge that a taser had been used.

The Telegraph later revealed that fourteen hours after the incident at the Cooma nursing home, Webb’s chief of staff told colleagues that the state’s top cop intended on taking a day off.

That day off was cancelled, something which should have been immediately obvious.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb’s responses to major issues has been repeatedly criticised. Picture: NCA NewsWire

She was also missing in action after protesters burned Israeli flags and shouted anti-Semitic chants outside the Opera House on October 9.

Rank and file police officers are increasingly unhappy with Webb’s performance, and Premier Chris Minns was hardly effusive in his defence of the state’s top cop on Monday.

Minns will not sack Webb, but he would be desperately hoping that her performance improves.

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Originally published as Karen Webb has again been caught on the back foot when she should be instilling confidence