From football to Commonwealth Games ... as a copper

Mike Foster, a Commonwealth Games villager back on the job as a detective in Hawke's Bay. Photo / Doug Laing

Mike Foster loves his sport, and has played to a good level.

But as a footballer, he knew the pathway was narrow. Even though he did capture national soccer prize the Chatham Cup with Napier City Rovers in 2002, he never really gave a second thought to such things as the Olympic and Commonwealth Games or the Fifa World Cup. If there was a disappointment, it was finishing top also in the league, but losing the grand final.

At the age of 48 and with most aspirations to sporting grandeur now one of life's bygones, busy as a father of two and keeping his toe in as a social-grade footballer - plus doing triathlons including Taupo Ironman - Mike Foster got to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games on Queensland's Gold Coast last month.

Highlights were Tom Walsh's gold medal in the shot put, watching at the finish line of both the men's and the women's marathons, and being with such a great and disciplined team at the high-performance level — 251 about 450 New Zealand athletes, managers and coaches.

Along with Canberra-based Detective Inspector Tom Fitzgerald, and Rotorua officer Nicola Cooney, a fellow graduate from police college 28 years ago, he formed what was effectively the New Zealand team police station in a games village of about 6500 at Southport.

This week, it was back to the day job: Detective Inspector Mike Foster, effectively the man in charge of major crime investigations in the police Eastern District (Hawke's Bay and Gisborne Tairawhiti), with little problem about being able to report what happened.

Simple answer, in terms of policing: "There were no incidents with the New Zealand team."
In a few words it's affirmation that sport, in particular team sport, has a big part to play in society — a pathway, there you are, to keeping young people out of trouble.

Not that any was ever expected, for this was much a safety exercise, from working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Queensland police and Australian Federal Police beforehand to scope more serious matters like potential terrorism activities, to ensuring the safety of the New Zealand contingent "pre-competition and post-competition".

At home, the philosophy on sport is rich. He and wife Julie, a physiotherapist, have two boys, aged 15 and 14, have both played football - although the younger, Sam, who also loves his athletics and the annual Colgate Games North Island children's event - has now gone "to the dark side" in winter — playing rugby.

Not that that's all bad. Even the inspector, who has played soccer abroad in a police tournament in Italy, has trotted out in rugby kit, as a flying winger at the more social level of the annual Len Snee Memorial games between Hawke's Bay Police and Gisborne Tairawhiti Police, in honour of workmate Len Snee who was shot dead nine years ago — the May 7, 2009, start of the event since known as the Napier Siege.

While Hawke's Bay has long been a destination of choice for police staff, Mike Foster found his way south out of Auckland, where he was at Mount Albert Grammar, leaving school at about age 15, and completing a butchery apprenticeship to be managing a Hellaby's shop in Onehunga before he'd turned 20.

Despite there being no known history of policing in the family, he always had a hankering for joining-up one day, and was on the recruiting officer's doorstep the day he turned 17, although new staff needed to be aged over 19.

"When I started in the butchery, I used to look out the window across the road and see the community constable talking to people," he says. "I thought, that would be an awesome job. It reinforced my dream of wanting to join the police."

The next nine years brought firstly a move to Hawke's Bay as a detective, promotion to Detective Sergeant in Kaikohe, and the move back to Hawke's Bay as Detective Senior Sergeant in 2010, but he keeps the slightest attachment to the trade of his teenage years, running four sheep for sustenance value at home.

There are inherent dangers and risks in the policing occupation, such as dealing with significantly drug-impaired customers from time to time and the variety of unknowns in the day-to-day life of police officers.

No great secrets there.

"One of the great challenges we have is methamphetamine in society," he says. "Methamphetamine drives a lot of our crime. Domestic violence, burglary. .."

"It is destroying people and it's destroying families," he says. "That's why we've had a big focus, but we have had some big results. There are 99 per cent of the people are great people, just that 1 per cent co committing the crime."

The number of great people could be close to 99.9 per cent, if the world could be rid of a few of the problems that grip some its inhabitants.

This is the community service aspect kicking in, for despite the hell-hole it must appear at times, he says: "I love my job."

"We have got a lot of good young talent here, who do care about the people they serve," he says, noting that as a policing area Hawke's Bay has come together well since the days of separate Napier and Hastings police precincts, which tended to epitomise the rivalry of the two cities.

If I was young and wanting to join the police he'd be telling me: "If you were good with people, and you care about your community, you'd be on the right track. Being able to communicate with a whole range of people is a real skill."

What he didn't say, was, "You might even get to the Commonwealth Games."