John MacDonald: Andrew Coster knows a lot - the caring bit, though, isn’t so obvious

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster has got his stats and he's sticking to them, says John MacDonald.

OPINION:

There’s that old line about people not caring what you know, until they know that you care.

And if you’ve heard or seen Police Commissioner Andrew Coster over the past 24 hours, you will have picked up that he knows a lot - the caring bit, though, isn’t so obvious.

Because, despite what people on the ground in cyclone-ravaged areas of the North Island are saying about criminal activity going nuts since the big storm, Commissioner Coster is sticking to the lines about reported crime being less than normal.

If anything’s increased, he says, it’s family harm offences.

He does acknowledge, though, that with all the communication challenges - with phones and electricity out - perhaps the reported stuff isn’t a reflection of everything that’s going on. But he’s got his stats and he’s sticking to them.

What’s more, you may have heard the Prime Minister saying on Newstalk ZB that some of the things people have been talking about - like the apparent cases of guns being pointed at people running checkpoints - have been third or fourth hand. And, according to the Prime Minister anyway, no one’s actually reported it to the police.

Either way, that doesn’t diminish my view that the Police Commissioner is completely missing the point here. We’ve got opposition politicians - and others - saying bring in the Army to help the Police deal with the lawlessness.

And we’ve got the commissioner responding with a whole lot of numbers which, on the face of it, are accurate. But it is a classic example of why it is so important to show that you care, before banging on about what you know.

We’ve got people saying they feel unsafe and we’ve got the Police Commissioner saying they shouldn’t feel unsafe because the stats don’t back that up. Really comforting.

And I think if you were in Canterbury during the earthquakes, you’ll be able to relate to all this.

Like me, you’ll remember the gun carriers and trucks rolling into town from Burnham every morning. And you’ll remember the soldiers being on duty at all the entry points into the CBD.

I’ll never forget going to Pak’nSave one night on Moorhouse Ave and coming out of the car park onto Manchester St and seeing the soldiers on duty and seeing that giant area of darkness over their shoulders that was the CBD.

And I remember whenever I saw them rolling in and out of town, it just made things feel more secure for some reason. That these men and women were here for us.

Don’t ask me to tell you what I thought they were here for or what they were here to do. Sure, they had the roadblocks to take care of but just seeing them coming in and out of town from Burnham made things feel just that little bit more secure.

Which is why I think the Police Commissioner is completely missing the point. He’s telling people in the cyclone areas what he knows (all the stats about crime being down etc), but he’s not showing them that he cares.

He’s not acknowledging that when people’s lives are turned upside down, of course they’re going to be suspicious of things like people taking photos. But in the past 24 hours he’s been saying where that’s been happening, it’s just been people taking photos of all the devastation. “Disaster tourism” as he puts it.

Do you think anyone in Hawke’s Bay finds that one bit reassuring? Of course not. Because when you’ve been through a disaster, you’re on heightened alert.

Back in 2011 after the big earthquake, a rumour started doing the rounds that an old volcano in Christchurch was about to go off. Completely wrong. But there were smart people who gave it credence simply because they were traumatised and on alert for every possible threat to their safety.

That will be what’s happening in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne. Yes, there will be some crims doing what they know best. Yes, it’ll be business as usual for the gangs. And yes commissioner, I know the stats don’t necessarily match with people’s fears and concerns.

But this is not business as usual and, if having the Army on patrol in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay makes the people there feel just that little bit more secure (and it would), then the commissioner needs to stop telling us what he knows and needs to start showing us that he cares.