Webb has many enemies and they will not stop until they topple her

When a senior public servant is lurching from controversy to controversy, any misstep can explode into a full-blown crisis. NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb’s failure to declare that she had a long-standing friendship with the supplier of taxpayer-funded gin proves that.

Webb was on Wednesday cleared by the police watchdog of any serious misconduct after an anonymous complaint was made accusing her of a conflict of interest over her purchase of 50 bottles of Commissioner’s Gin to hand out as gifts to visiting dignitaries.

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission found she followed the rules but highlighted that she should have declared that she was mates with the supplier.

Her predecessor Mick Fuller had already used that supplier – Michael Hope from Hope Estate in the Hunter Valley. And when Webb’s turn came, she did not declare her friendship with him.

It was not the most egregious mistake but when you are being hunted by your own – both current and former high-ranking members of the force – any error is pounced on and weaponised. And this is Webb’s biggest threat. There is a well-organised group determined to end her.

Webb is a commissioner under fire. She has enjoyed a period of relative calm as she aptly handled the horrific Bondi Junction stabbings and the Wakeley priest attack in western Sydney. But she had endured waves of unrelenting criticism before those events.

In May last year, Webb was slammed for her failure to not front the media after 95-year-old nursing home resident Clare Nowland was Tasered by a police officer and later died.

In March this year, Webb was defending her position after not addressing the public early enough after Senior Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly shot and killed couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in a Paddington home, using his police pistol. Ducking the media in a crisis involving her own staff was becoming a recurring theme for Webb.