John MacDonald: Commissioner Coster - Good Cop or Bad Cop?

Canterbury Mornings with John MacDonald

You’re never going to get me saying the police have it easy. And, likewise, you’re never going to hear me saying being Police Commissioner is a cushy number.

You imagine being the top dog in charge of the police force. Not an easy gig.

But, pretty much like every job that most people wouldn’t want to do, there are always others willing to put their hand up and give it a go.

Police Commissioner is the last job I’d want. Just like I wouldn’t want to be a politician. But there are no shortage of people wanting to be politicians. Lord knows why. But they’re out there, and good on them.

And thank goodness too that there are people willing to put themselves on the line everyday and be police officers. And thank goodness too that there are people such as Andrew Coster who are prepared to take on the job of Police Commissioner.

But I tell you what, when I heard him speaking on Newstalk ZB last night, I really started to wonder if he’s up to it.

Think back one year ago exactly, to the protests at Parliament. That was another time I was scratching my head about the job Andrew Coster was doing.

But it’s the way he’s handling things after Cyclone Gabrielle that’s really testing my confidence in him.

Firstly, there’s this steadfast refusal to bring the military in to do more than deliver stuff and fix things. We’ve talked, haven’t we, about how reassuring it was to have the soldiers on the ground in Canterbury after the earthquakes.

And the head of Federated Farmers was talking about this on the radio this morning and how reassuring it would be for the people up north to have more soldiers up there bolstering the police numbers.

It’s a no-brainer, as far as I’m concerned. But Andrew Coster just keeps trotting out the line that the police have it all under control and there’s no need for the military to be on patrol up there.

Then there’s this claim that more police are going in to the cyclone-affected areas - this was after the public meeting up there the other night where residents said some of them are taking things into their own hands and arming themselves because they don’t think there are enough cops to keep a lid on the looters and thieves.

So he announces yesterday that more police are going in. But when he was quizzed abpout it on Newstalk ZB, it turned out that the number of police wasn’t increasing - but he was setting up pop-up police stations for people to go to.

When I heard that, I thought what a load of nonsense and how stupid he was to think he could get away with setting up a few pop-up police stations and claiming that amounted to an increase in numbers on the ground.

And he was forced to admit that last night.

But it’s the way the Prime Minister was mis-led that really takes the cake for me.

Chris Hipkins responded to media reports of road workers having firearms pointed at them. Which was said to be a reason why people up there felt unsafe and wanted greater police and military presence.

I remember hearing the Prime Minister saying that the reports about the road workers were only second or third-hand - rumour effectively - and hadn’t been reported to the police.

Which upset the road workers greatly. And, since then, the Prime Minister has apologised to them for dismissing what was a very traumatic experience for them. And good on Chris Hipkins for fronting up on that.

But can you imagine the words the Prime Minister thought to himself or even said out loud when he found out the information from the police that his comments were based on was incorrect?

You imagine having a gun pulled on you by a bunch of crims. And then hearing someone like the Prime Minister, of all people, throwing doubt on whether it even happened.

Because that was the experience of those roadworkers. I’m sure they will have appreciated the apology from the Prime Minister. But - here’s the question - should the Prime Minister be so forgiving of the Police Commissioner?

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