Outgoing Police Commissioner Andrew Coster speaks out on being dragged into political debate, Minister Mark Mitchell has no regrets

Outgoing Police Commissioner Andrew Coster has spoken about being dragged into the political debate, saying it could be “challenging” and that the role of Police Commissioner should never be seen as a political appointment.

Coster will step down as Police Commissioner in early November to take up a new job as chief executive of the Social Investment Agency – five months before his term was due to end in April.

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The decision means the process for selecting a new Police Commissioner will kick off, run by the Public Service Commission. Once the shortlist is completed, Police Minister Mark Mitchell has a big say in who is appointed.

Mitchell and Coster had a difficult start to their relationship after Mitchell publicly criticised Coster’s approach to policing when he was in Opposition. Mitchell also delayed expressing confidence in Coster after becoming Police Minister.

Mitchell now says he has no regrets about the criticism in Opposition.

Coster said he believed their relationship since then had been “good” and Mitchell had acknowledged that he had responded to the new Government’s priorities, such as gang units and getting more police on the beat.

However, Coster did not shy away from saying that being dragged into the political debate made the job more difficult and that politics should not come into play in selecting a Police Commissioner.

“Any election framed around law and order is going to be challenging for police and for policing. We have to do our best to sit in that politically neutral space, but sometimes that can be hard when issues are being contested very strongly, and inevitably policing gets a reflection on that.”

Coster said it was important the Police Commissioner’s role was politically neutral.

“It’s really important commissioners are able to serve under ministers of different stripes.

“It will be a sad day where the role of Police Commissioner is seen as a political appointment, because of police being so fundamental to the way our democracy works and the way our society works. It needs to sit in a neutral space.”

Mitchell yesterday said he did not regret his criticisms, saying it was the “job of Opposition”.

“[Coster] was working under a Labour Government that had very poor policy settings which meant that we were getting very poor outcomes and going backwards in terms of public safety so no, not at all.”

Mitchell said he had not approved of Coster’s policing-by-consent approach. However, he said Coster had worked to put in place the new Government’s priorities and was certain the previous criticism would not disrupt relationships in the future. He expected to continue to work with Coster to some extent through the Social Investment Agency.

Coster will be leaving in early November, just before National’s new gang laws come into effect. While he was confident the rest of the police executive would deliver on those, he said he had been keen to stay to see that through.

“It’s been important to me to demonstrate that we will respond to the priorities of the Government of the day, and I believe we’ve done that well.”

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Asked if he thought the changes the new Government had made would work, Coster said police had long argued they were spread too thinly “and needed to come back to our core functions”. That was happening in some areas, such as mental health call-outs.

“So having the support to make that shift is really positive. It does imply though that others will need to step into those spaces and that is a challenge in financially constrained times.”

Asked if he thought gangs were now too entrenched for police to get on top of the problem, Coster did not answer directly but said police had had success on organised crime, as the Comancheros operations showed. He also pointed to the potential of the gang-patch ban.

“The gangs tend to shy away from strong police attention and if they insist on wearing patches in public, then they will attract a lot of police attention.

“There will clearly be some who see it otherwise, but police will be well placed to bring that attention and I do think it’s possible we could change behaviour through the way we go about that.”

The gang-patch ban would also make gangs less visible, which would make people feel safer.

His advice for the next Police Commissioner was to have the courage of their convictions.

“This role really requires the courage of your convictions. You face all sorts of things and you never quite know what’s going to come around the corner, but if you bring a strong set of values to the role you can’t go far wrong.”

Asked what the biggest challenge for the next commissioner would be, Coster said that, as with many other countries, New Zealand was now more polarised, something he believed had added to a decline in trust in the police in the Crime and Victims Survey.

“Policing generally relies on there being middle ground of people who see the world in the same way and are supportive of police’s actions. Polarisation has made that more difficult than it used to be. It’s not impossible, but it’s definitely one of the challenges for the commissioner.”

He said for the wider police force, a lot of people were facing hardship because of the economy and that presented other challenges.

Coster’s tenure was during Covid-19 and included the three-week occupation of Parliament by anti-mandate protesters.

He said his proudest day with police was the operation to end the Parliament protests. He would leave the force with mixed emotions, saying it had given him a lot of opportunities from frontline policing to investigations and national security work.

“It’s a marvellous career, and I consider myself very privileged to have had this opportunity.”

The Social Investment role

It is understood Coster was encouraged to apply for his role at the Social Investment Agency after earlier saying he would not stand for a second term as Police Commissioner.

Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis said she was delighted by the appointment and while Mitchell still has no time for Coster’s “policing-by-consent” philosophy, Mitchell did say he was perfect for the Social Investment Agency work.

Coster would not say if he had been shoulder-tapped for the job. “But I do think the ministers here were looking for someone who understands what it looks like on the ground and who is able to work well across chief executive colleagues. There’s a big ambition around social investment.”

Coster will be in charge of a much smaller agency than police but said the job had a lot of appeal to him.

“It’s never been to me about status or the size of the agency, it’s about the opportunity to make a difference. I see policing and social investment on the same continuum. It’s the opportunity to make a real difference at the other end of the chain from policing – policing operates a lot at the bottom of the cliff and this job is all about trying to get the settings right at the top. So I’m excited.”

He said as a small agency “it will need to think deftly about where it leads, and where it is reliant on others to deliver outcomes”.

He said the agency was a central agency so would play a key role in influencing the settings across the whole Government.

Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor. She started her journalism career at the Northern Advocate in 2002 and has been at the Herald since 2003. She joined the Press Gallery team in 2007 and is a life member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.