New police commissioner Mick Fuller alone in pursuing Man Monis deal

THE state’s new police commissioner was the only senior police officer prepared to negotiate with the Lindt siege gunman for the release of hostages.

• New police commissioner ‘to stop the bickering’

THE state’s new police commissioner was the only senior police officer prepared to negotiate with the Lindt siege gunman for the release of hostages.

Assistant Commissioner Mick Fuller was the first officer in charge of the Police Operations Centre at the start of the 2014 siege and was willing to let the gunman Man Monis talk to the ABC in return for the release “one by one” of about half the hostages.

But unknown to him at the time, the deal was never put to Monis because the head negotiator, known only as “Graeme”, overruled his boss because he felt it was against the government’s policy of not making concessions to terrorists.

Mick Fuller has been spoken of as a young “steady pair of hands”. Picture: Adam Taylor

When this damning evidence was revealed at the inquest into the siege in June last year, Assistant Commissioner Fuller was already being talked about as the successor to Andrew Scipione.

Just minutes after giving “Graeme” the instructions, the siege was officially declared a terrorist incident and taken over by the head of counter terrorism Assistant Commission Mark Murdoch, and Assistant Commissioner Fuller was no longer head of the Police Operations Centre.

As his new role was announced today, Mr Fuller, 48, nicknamed “Mickey Blue Eyes” years ago by colleagues, was being talked about as a young “steady pair of hands” to calm tensions that had ripped apart the top echelons of the police for years.

Mick Fuller helps announce the forming of a taskforce to combat alcohol violence.

Mr Fuller at the launch of Operation Talisman alongside then-premier Mike Baird. Picture: Toby Zerna

In a tribal police force, he was part of the clique known as the “Bra Boys”, so-named because the group of senior police trained at Maroubra.

His fellow “Bra Boys” included former deputy commissioner Dave Owens, now retired, and Superintendent Dave Donohue.

Mr Fuller has worked at the coalface of policing running the drug squad in Sydney’s King Cross in the ‘90s at the height of street drug dealing.

In his current role, Mr Fuller is responsible for overseeing the Sydney CBD and 14 Local Area Commands stretching from North Sydney to Sutherland.

He is also the force’s domestic violence and family violence spokesman, a role in which he has been responsible for reforms to target perpetrators proactively in an effort reduce rates of re-offending.

Mr Fuller speaks today at a press conference announcing his appointment. Picture: Dylan Robinson

The father of four (three daughters and a son) joined the police in 1987 at the age of 19, starting at Kogarah.

As a detective, he worked in the City of Sydney, the Organised Crime Squad and other specialist investigation roles before being promoted to detective sergeant at Kings Cross.

Mr Fuller was promoted to superintendent in 2004 and was promoted to assistant commissioner in 2010 as the Commander of Southern Region.

In July 2014 he moved to Central Metropolitan Region and has been in both operational and strategic command in response to major emergencies and major events including the City to Surf, the APEC Summit, World Youth Day, Sydney New Years Eve, the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Australia Day.

He is commander for Operation Hammerhead, which was formed in response to the heightened National Terrorism Alert to co-ordinate the strategic deployment of highly visible resources across the Sydney Metropolitan Area.