Politics and policing: Andrew Coster’s exit means cops can crack down on crime – Heather du Plessis-Allan

THREE KEY FACTS

• Police Commissioner Andrew Coster has resigned to take up the role of chief executive of the Social Investment Agency.
• Coster has led the police force since April 2020 and finishes his five-year post a year early.
• In 2021, then National Party justice spokesman Simon Bridges criticised Coster as a “wokester” in relation to his approach to gang and gun violence.

Heather du Plessis-Allan is the Drive host for Newstalk ZB.

OPINION

Few appear to be mourning the departure of Andrew Coster from the Police Commissioner’s job.

When he announced he would be leaving the post early, the celebratory texts and emails started arriving. They were from serving and former police officers, happy to see the back of the man they call “The Lantern”: bright, but must be carried.

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They’re happy to be rid of a leader who didn’t crack down on large gang convoys when they took over New Zealand roads. Whose response to random iwi checkpoints unlawfully stopping cars during Covid was to send officers to babysit and legitimise them. Who embarrassed himself by threatening to tow parliamentary protesters’ cars unless they moved then, when they ignored him, did nothing.

The hope is that police can now get on with cracking down on crime without being so politicised by their boss.

It was ironic that Coster complained this week about being dragged into the political debate, given he was the one so often doing it himself.

It was Andrew Coster who embraced identity politics, ordering a review of racial bias in the police after the death of a black man at the hands of police. It had nothing to do with his police officers. It happened in the United States.

It was Coster who publicly lobbied the Government to change alcohol laws.

It was Coster who raised questions about his own political independence when he made an attempt to clear the parliamentary protest only after a meeting with key Labour Government figures. It was after 6pm on February 9, 2022 when Grant Robertson, David Parker and Speaker Trevor Mallard had a chat with Coster. After that he told his officers to clear the protest and they tried the next day.

The fact that Coster is squealing in his exit interviews about the very thing he himself did to the police tells you something: he’s very good at politics.

It’s possible the National Party underestimated that about him when they won the election last year.

They seem to have assumed he’d be easier to get rid of than he actually turned out to be.

After years of criticising Coster, the Nats had no choice but to get rid of him. But he wouldn’t budge.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell refused to express confidence. Coster stared him down and stayed in the job.

Departing Police Commissioner Andrew Coster (left) and Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Mitchell wrote and published a letter telling Coster how to do his job, humiliating him in the process. Coster knuckled down and did as he was told.

A cynic would say that the reason Coster has a job to go to is because the coalition Government had to find him one to get him to leave the police.

Fortunately for them (and us, given we’re paying his salary), it’s a job he might actually be good at.

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Running the Social Investment Agency feels more in Coster’s wheelhouse than cracking down on crims ever seemed to be.

The idea behind social investment is to be the fence at the top of the cliff, rather than the ambulance at the bottom (which is where the police sit). The aim is to prevent at-risk kids ever becoming criminals, by putting huge amounts of money, time and love into them as early as possible.

Coster is clearly intelligent, caring and decent. His attitude of being kind to people the rest of society has abandoned makes him almost perfect for the job.

And given that the point of that agency is to give cuddles – not jail time – he’ll probably finally discover what it’s like to have the support of his front line.