Police Commissioner Mick Fuller overhauls Force with plans to cut up to 50 middle management jobs
EXCLUSIVE: Deputy Commissioner Cath Burn has been sent packing to Parramatta and 50 of the state’s 800 superintendents and inspectors are set to go in new top cop Mick Fuller’s overhaul of the force.
NSW
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- Mick Fuller: The coalface cop that rose to the top
- New top cop will make major changes to NSW Police Force
UP to 50 of the state’s 800 superintendents and inspectors will get the chop as part of a massive overhaul of the force by new Police Commissioner Mick Fuller.
Mr Fuller is understood to want more boots on the ground and less middle management after concerns the NSW Police Force was too top heavy compared with world standards.
In some cases, a NSW superintendent is managing just 10 people. These officers receive a total package of up to $250,000 a year. A constable earns $65,000 to $73,000.
Well-placed sources said Mr Fuller was out to rein in the police budget, which is spending about $100 million too much every year.
The restructure, foreshadowed when he replaced Andrew Scipione earlier this month, is expected to take place within the next two years. It would likely save more than $10 million annually.
It comes as The Daily Telegraph can also reveal embattled deputy police commissioner Cath Burn is being relocated from the force’s CBD headquarters to Parramatta.
Ms Burn, once considered the favourite to become the new top cop, has been told she is to leave the power base in Elizabeth St next week where she has been for the past seven years to make way for a new deputy commissioner for the city.
It comes just two weeks after she was stripped of her high-profile role as head of Counter Terrorism.
Mr Fuller has previously foreshadowed he would shift about two per cent of the 16,500 strong police force to areas which require more cops, including the bush.
Part of the restructure involves the looming appointment of two new deputy commissioners — one to supervise the city and one appointed to supervise the country.
Jeff Loy and Gary Worboys are among the candidates being suggested to join Catherine Burn and David Hudson as deputy commissioners.
Other contenders include Geoff McKechnie and Carlene York.
Mr Fuller confirmed the shake-up to middle-management when approached by The Daily Telegraph.
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“I’m committed to reducing ineffective expensive (practices) but I’m committed to not reducing (overall) police numbers,” he said.
In his first interview with The Daily Telegraph after his appointment last month, the Commissioner said: “I don’t see it as I need to save some money — I see it as I need to give the government confidence that we are an efficient organisation.
“I will never put money before public safety.”
This is not the first time the prospect of cutting back on inspector and superintendent roles has been looked at. In 2012, Ms Burn was reported as having received costings for reducing the number of inspectors by 100 and reducing the number of superintendents from 80 to 30 over seven years.
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