July 16, 2026 — 10:12amVictoria’s highest-ranking police officer isn’t afraid to get back on the tools when the situation calls for it.Chief Commissioner Mike Bush was in a vehicle travelling to work along Collins Street in the Melbourne CBD just after 6am on Wednesday, when he and his security spotted several officers trying to subdue a man believed to be armed with a knife.Chief Commissioner Mike Bush.Justin McManusPolice said the man had run away as officers, responding to a Triple Zero call, confronted him on Queen Street.The man, a 32-year-old from Brunswick, managed to evade the officers even after they Tasered him.Police say the man then threw his weapon, which turned out to be a chisel rather than a knife, at officers.It was at this point police said Bush arrived on the scene, flanked by his security detail.“Bush got out of the car and restrained the man before being assisted by his security officer and other police,” police said.The man has since been taken to hospital for assessment, with no one injured during his arrest.As investigations continue, Bush is yet to comment publicly on the incident.While surrounding businesses did not have footage or witness the incident, Carlo Moussi, the owner of Tavistock House Cafe in Flinders Lane, said that while he opened his cafe he heard the man who was later arrested.“I basically opened the doors and I heard one guy just yelling and screaming up the street,” Moussi said.“He just seemed angry and confused... he looked didn’t know what he was doing.”Asked how he felt about Bush joining in the arrest party, Moussi said: “One: We might be short on police. Two: It’s unusual, but he’s done his job.”Bush is not the first Victorian high-ranking emergency services manager to lend a hand to subordinates on the beat.In January, the head of Victoria’s homicide squad, Detective Inspector Dean Thomas, joined an unsworn police officer and a bystander in arresting a teenager who allegedly attacked an elderly man on Lonsdale Street, near the police headquarters.Thomas told 3AW he’d been walking back to his office to eat his lunch when he noticed the disturbance.“We’re on the footpath and I’ve got my rice paper rolls in their cardboard box trying to restrain this fellow. At that stage, I was assisted by some other police who were fortunately walking along the footpath doing the same as me, getting some lunch,” he said in January.In late June, Ambulance Victoria chief executive Jordan Emery helped to deliver a baby girl in Wangaratta, north-east Victoria.Ambulance Victoria chief executive Jordan Emery helped colleagues deliver a baby in late June.Justin McManusHaving arrived to visit the ambulance station which was damaged by fire, Emery joined paramedics when they were called out to a mother in labour, stepping in when he learnt neither of the two paramedics had delivered a child before.Bush recently notched up one year in the chief commissioner role, having arrived from New Zealand to take over a police force emerging from a bruising pay dispute and challenged by longstanding staff shortages.Bush has attempted to address these issues while also dealing with the aftermath of the death of two officers in a shooting in Porepunkah last August.Be the first to know when major news happens. Sign up for breaking news alerts on email or turn on notifications in the app.From our partners