Incoming Police Commissioner Karen Webb suggests specialised cops in local police commands
More specialist police in local commands could be a way to better investigate sex crimes and support victims, says incoming Police Commissioner Karen Webb.
NSW
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Local special victims police squads could be established to combat sex crimes, with incoming NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb suggesting more specialist officers could be deployed in local police commands.
Ms Webb, who will take over from outgoing Commissioner Mick Fuller, declared she would focus on supporting victims of crime – including sexual assault and domestic violence survivors.
The state’s first female Police Commissioner declared on Wednesday that she was selected on her “merits”, not because of her gender, but said her appointment would be an important step forward for women joining the force.
Premier Dominic Perrottet and Police Minister David Elliott phoned Ms Webb after 6pm on Tuesday to inform her she would be appointed to run the NSW Police Force, having been chosen over fellow deputy commissioners Mick Willing and Mal Lanyon. Cabinet ministers signed off on the appointment on Wednesday morning.
Mr Perrottet said there was “probably no more important appointment” for the government than choosing a police commissioner.
“This is an important role … not just in leading the 17,000 members of the NSW Police Force but, importantly, ensuring the safety of the eight million people across our state,” Mr Perrottet said on Wednesday.
“I believe (Ms Webb) will do a very, very good job.”
One of Ms Webb’s key priorities would be victims of crime, mainly “child abuse victims, victims of assault, sexual assault and domestic violence”, she said.
The incoming commissioner backed having more “dedicated officers” in local areas to investigate sexual assault crimes.
“Maybe not in every command, but I think we just need that cohort of officers that (are) really good at it,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
“Where we’ve got dedicated officers, you know, that they have great victim care and see these cases through.”
During her time as an officer, Ms Webb investigated crimes against children in the Child Mistreatment Unit.
“Once you have investigated a child sex abuse crime you are able to investigate any crime,’’ she said.
Ms Webb also wants to increase the “inclusion and diversity” in NSW Police, including by seeing more women in the force.
She said that while she would not see gender parity in the force in her lifetime, she was pleased the proportion of women joining had increased since she signed up.
“(I) never had ambitions to be the police commissioner. I come from a small country town and when I went for my licence there was a flyer asking for recruits,’’ she said.
After working to enforce Covid-19 health orders, Ms Webb said it was time for NSW Police to “return to what we know best and that’s keeping our community safe in the more traditional way of protecting people against crime”.
Mr Fuller, who will likely hand over to Ms Webb in the new year, was thanked by the Premier and Police Minister on Wednesday.
“He inherited a police force with significant challenges, and as if by osmosis a lot of those challenges were addressed,” Mr Elliott said of Mr Fuller.
WOMEN AT THE HELM OF NSW LAW AND ORDER
The day women are accepted into the top jobs is the day the media will stop writing about them – and NSW is almost there.
Karen Webb joins her former police colleague Carlene York and barrister Sally Dowling as the female trio running some of the state’s most important law and order posts.
Ex-NSW Police assistant commissioner Ms York became the first woman to head the State Emergency Service, thrown in at the deep end as a slew of record-breaking disasters hit NSW with bushfires and floods.
She has recently been announced as the 10th president of the National Council for Fire and Emergency Services in Australia and New Zealand, both the first woman and the first SES commissioner to hold the position.
Ms Dowling took over as the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions after beginning her working life outside the law with jobs as a waitress, singer and bookie’s clerk at racecourses.
In another first, she was the first prosecutor to work part-time with the DPP as she helped bring up her children.
While she prosecutes them, another woman defends them. Belinda Rigg SC was appointed in 2019 as the state’s first female Senior Public Defender where one of her first jobs was to appear for Robert Xie when he unsuccessfully appealed his convictions for bludgeoning five family members to death.
For the record, a woman is also NSW Governor. Margaret Beazley QC was appointed in 2019 after having scored a number of firsts for females as the first female judge of the Federal Court, the first woman appointed to the NSW Court of Appeal and the first woman to be appointed as its president.
The president of the NSW Law Society Juliana Warner is not the first woman to fill the role but is another notable woman leading the law profession.
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