James O’Doherty: Tangled Webb leaves cops without confidence

The day after police discovered an explosives-laden caravan containing addresses of potential Jewish targets padlocked on the side of a road in Dural, Police Commissioner Karen Webb was trying to take leave.

The day after police discovered an explosives-laden caravan containing addresses of potential Jewish targets padlocked on the side of a road in Dural, Police Commissioner Karen Webb was trying to take leave.

She ended up coming in on January 20, doing two radio interviews, where she insisted that she was not considering retiring.

But Webb then continued her leave the morning after, when a childcare centre in Maroubra was firebombed and vandalised in an anti-Semitic attack.

She only made the call to come back shortly after she sent one of her deputies, Peter Thurtell, out to front the media.

When The Daily Telegraph revealed the shocking discovery of a caravan that Premier Chris Minns said could have been used in an act of terrorism, Webb was absent again.

Twice now, Webb has failed to front up to crucial media conferences following shocking anti-Semitic attacks.

The Commissioner is a stickler for process. She argued that it was right for her deputy, Dave Hudson, to be the man fronting up on Wednesday night, as he was the man leading the investigation.

But that’s not good enough.

Karen Webb has insisted she is not retiring. Picture Thomas Lisson

Webb does not just need to lead, she needs to be seen leading.

The NSW public need to see the head of the police force on the front foot, reassuring people that authorities are doing everything possible to find those responsible for a potential “mass casualty” attack.

She also needs to front up to show rank and file officers that she is taking this investigation as seriously as it deserves - rather than leaving them increasingly disheartened at the public absence of their boss.

Time and again, Commissioner Webb has been missing in action when it really mattered.

She also has form in bungling the public response to a crisis.

In 2023, she defended her office’s response to the tasering of 95-year old Clare Nowland, when references to a taser were omitted from an initial media release.

Months later, she copped flak for waiting days to address the media after then-senior constable Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly shot and killed Jesse Baird and Luke Davies with his police-issued pistol.

“Haters are gonna hate,” she said at the time in reference to criticism of her performance, which presumably included this column.

On Thursday she appeared to blame the media again, when she claimed that media reporting had “compromised” an ongoing investigation that NSW Police had kept under-wraps for 10 days.

She may have been trying to make a statement of fact, but it came across as veiled criticism at The Daily Telegraph breaking a massive story of major public interest.

She later clarified, saying the media was “simply doing their job”.

Premier Chris Minns backed the Telegraph for “breakthrough journalism,” saying authorities need to “play the ball where it lands”

“Police can’t stop good investigative journalism,” he told 2GB.

Perhaps NSW Police were initially aggrieved at being caught short when it came to notifying the Jewish community about the potential threat.

On Thursday, Hudson revealed Jewish groups had not been told that a caravan full of enough explosives to create a 40 metre blast radius had been seized.

He said he did not speak to Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip until after the Telegraph broke the story.

The Deputy Commissioner said the organisation’s security arm was aware of a “threat environment” which was “escalating,” but admitted not sharing any specific details.

“We didn’t directly tell them about the explosives in the caravan because … the threat was appropriately mitigated at that stage,” he told ABC.

That, Jewish leaders say, is not good enough.

“I think once the initial phase of the investigation had begun and they had identified whatever perpetrators they were able to, there should at least have been a private briefing to the institutions,” said Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim.

Not even the rabbi at the synagogue the address of which was inside the caravan knew.

What message does it send to the Jewish community that NSW Police knew that a potential “mass casualty event” had been prevented by chance, and they only found out via the Telegraph?

The saga is another bungled response from a Commissioner who should, by now, know better.

On January 20, when Webb came in on her day off to appear on ABC Radio Drive, she said that she would not resign because she is finally off her training wheels.

“I’m three years into my five year contract, and I actually feel that I’m just getting my speed now,” she said.

That admission is all you need to know: Webb won’t improve her performance if she does not think anything is wrong.