“Hindsight is a wonderful thing.”
That was the response from NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb when asked if she wished she had handled things differently after 95-year-old Clare Nowland was tasered by a police officer last year.
And based on the speed with which she fronted the media on Wednesday afternoon, less than four hours after senior constable Kristian White was convicted of Mrs Nowland’s manslaughter, it certainly seems some lessons have been learned.
It was a pivotal moment in a case that has plagued the last 18 months of Commissioner Webb’s leadership.
She faced widespread criticism of how her office handled the incident in May last year, which reportedly contributed to her decision to sack her chief media advisor Liz Deegan earlier this year.
The missteps began when the initial NSW Police press release, issued hours after Mrs Nowland was hospitalised with an inoperable brain bleed, omitted any mention of a taser being used.
The statement simply said a 95-year-old woman had “sustained injuries during an interaction with police” and the police media unit refused to tell journalists what happened when they called asking questions.
Commissioner Webb and Police Minister Yasmin Catley have repeatedly defended the decision, saying police wanted Mrs Nowland’s family to find out about the taser before they heard through the media.
But emails released under parliamentary order later revealed Mrs Nowland’s immediate family likely knew the details of the incident soon after she was hospitalised — before a media statement was issued.
Commissioner faced backlash over bodycam footage
The commissioner then copped further criticism for her decision not to personally front the media for three days after the incident, though the local NSW Police commander held a press conference a day earlier.
When the commissioner did hold a press conference, she admitted she had not personally viewed the bodycam footage of the incident, which was yet another source of backlash.
She defended that decision as well, saying she wanted “a complete picture” of what happened before she viewed the footage, which ironically would’ve promptly given her a clear picture of what happened.
That footage was a key piece of evidence in the subsequent trial that this week convicted White of Mrs Nowland’s manslaughter.
Addressing the media after Wednesday’s verdict, Commissioner Webb said she “may or may not have done things differently”.
“At that time, and it still remains important, that family was front of mind for me, for them to be informed,” she said.
It was nine months after Clare Nowland’s case that Commissioner Webb again came under fire for not addressing the media and the public soon enough.
In February this year, she was heavily criticised for waiting several days to hold a press conference after former senior constable Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly shot and killed couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in a Paddington home, using his police-force pistol.
Webb made major staff changes
She has defended all her decisions, but has since made some major staff changes in her office and, it seems, her media strategy has changed too.
In June this year, she called a press conference almost immediately after announcing two of her officers had been charged with assaulting elderly man Ronald Hodge during an arrest in Picton, in Sydney’s west.
It’s just one of several examples in the past six months of an obvious effort for her to be more accountable and up-front during a public relations crisis.
It is worth noting that in her relatively short time in the top job, she has been forced to manage some of the most significant incidents involving NSW Police officers in the state’s history.
And, as she said herself in Wednesday’s press conference, “there’ll be many things ahead” and “I’m always learning”.