New police chief Mick Fuller focuses on rifles and officers with ‘mental resilience’

NEW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has vowed to arm police with rifles within six months and move to recruit ­officers with the mental resilience to stave off PTSD.

Mick Fuller will officially take the reins from Andrew Scipione at 5pm today. Picture: Brianne Makin

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NEW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has vowed to arm police with rifles within six months and move to recruit ­officers with the mental resilience to stave off PTSD.

Speaking with The Sunday Telegraph at the Sydney Police Centre yesterday, the new top cop also revealed plans to introduce drones into major event operations and maintain a focus on reducing domestic violence across NSW.

The 49-year-old, who will officially take the reins from Andrew Scipione at 5pm today, said the public could expect to see Public Order and Riot Squad officers with rifles.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller outlines his agenda during an interview with The Daily Telegraph. Photo by Brianne Makin

“Certainly if there was an incident that caused the threat levels to go up, then certainly I would expect they would have them on hand and they would be visible,” he said.

Speaking of his own traumatic experiences during his 30 years on the force, Mr Fuller said he would aim to hire young recruits with the potential to “build resilience” to help reduce the number of officers battling PTSD.

“I know I can’t future-proof the organisation from people being injured, physically or psychologically, but I really want to make sure we are employing not just good people who are smart and can run fast, but people who have got the ability to build resilience up to what could be a long career seeing some pretty terrible things,” he said.

“I’ve thought a lot about this as a police officer who has been stressed after incidents, how I’ve got through that and how I’ve built resilience.

“So I guess for me it is really about anything from the very first point when someone joins the organisation, are we doing every test possible to make sure that they have got that potential to build resilience.”

Fuller in 2017.

Fuller as a cadet in 1987.

He also outlined plans to “keep up with technology” by making use of police drones during major events and high-risk scenarios in public areas.

As the former NSW Police spokesman for domestic violence for the past two years, Mr Fuller also vowed not to “fall off” his commitment to reducing family violence across the state.

“It is still one of our biggest crime problems and I guess the challenge for me is making sure people don’t get tired of talking about it.”