‘NSWP edition of Game of Thrones’: The bitter succession fight to become state’s top cop

3 weeks ago 3

A bitter succession tussle has erupted among the upper echelons of the NSW Police force as the NSW government chooses a new commissioner. It happens every time the job rolls around. You can set your watch by it.

As one officer said on Wednesday: “I see the NSWP edition of Game of Thrones has started a new season.” Not even Macquarie Street can rival the toxicity of the political manoeuvring within the top levels of NSW Police.

Mal Lanyon is the front runner to be the state’s new police commissioner.

Until now, the strong front runner has been Mal Lanyon, a deputy commissioner who has been on secondment with the Reconstruction Authority (which helps communities cope with natural disasters) since last April.

Lanyon is the Police Association’s preferred candidate. He caught the eye of the premier, Chris Minns, during a flood emergency in northern NSW earlier this year. “Mr Minns loves him,” one senior officer told the Herald in May.

He only missed out on getting the job last time, in late 2021, because of a drunken incident while visiting the police academy in Goulburn earlier that year, when paramedics found him lying unresponsive on a footpath near the Big Merino, a giant concrete ram.

Off-duty public drunkenness is not a sin (although a poor example from a senior police officer), but the greater issue was Lanyon’s clenching his fists and telling the attending paramedics to “f--- off”, before calling the Ambulance NSW CEO.

Lanyon caught the eye of the Premier Chris Minns during a flood emergency in northern NSW earlier this year.

These were emergency responders just doing their job.

He was counselled by his boss, then-commissioner Mick Fuller. Junior officers would have been investigated by Professional Standards for the same behaviour. The message this sent was that it was one rule for lowly officers, and another for their boss.

When the job came up again – after Karen Webb stood down, ostensibly of her own will but, multiple sources said, at the encouragement of Minns – the view was that Lanyon had done his penance, and that Goulburn should no longer hold him back.

But the revelation by the Herald on Wednesday that Lanyon took his wife and another couple on a police boat on New Year’s Eve in 2023 presents a new problem for his leadership ambitions.

The incident fits into the same category as Goulburn. Junior officers would have to ask permission to bring mates aboard, and it’s unlikely it would have been granted – particularly on a hectic night like New Year’s Eve.

Again, the impression is that it’s one rule for the boss, and another for everyone else.

One officer recalls being told that even making too many personal calls from police phones may be an irresponsible use of public resources. “They didn’t say anything about taking the flagship of the fleet out, so that must be OK?”

For constables who are put “on paper” and investigated for indiscretions large and small – as they should be, in a police force that has fought hard to overcome the serious corruption of the ’70s and ’80s – it doesn’t pass the so-called pub test.

Lanyon and outgoing commissioner Karen Webb, who finishes up on September 30.

It’s unclear whether this revelation will change Minns’ view of Lanyon. The New Year’s Eve incident has come to light after a complaint to the police watchdog in the past few weeks, potentially made by someone who is opposed to Lanyon being promoted.

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission usually investigates complaints against the top brass, so lower-ranked officers don’t have to investigate their superiors.

The government is dragging its feet on announcing a decision about the new commissioner; time is ticking away until September 30, which is officially Webb’s last day (although she’s been absent from HQ for months).

Impatience is growing and rumours are swirling. Police factions – based on who’s worked with whom, who’s been promoted under whose leadership, and the areas where cops started out in general duties – are fighting for their candidates.

The messaging from government is mixed. Some Macquarie Street sources say that announcement is imminent; others that a decision has not yet been made. A consistent line is that there is “no perfect candidate” for the job.

But that “no perfect candidate” line is worrying. How is it possible that the NSW Police Force, one of the largest in the English-speaking world, cannot produce a high-quality candidate with an unblemished record for one of the state’s most important jobs?

This is the force that produced Bondi massacre hero Amy Scott; that employed the five officers who rushed in to try to save a man dying from gas poisoning in Riverstone on Tuesday, and got sick themselves; that walks towards danger to keep others safe.

The toxic politicking that constantly surrounds the top job, and has done so for decades, undermines their good work.

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