Heather du Plessis-Allan: Andrew Coster not seeking a second term will upset almost no one

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

So Andrew Coster has revealed he will not be seeking a second term as Police Commissioner.

Which will upset...almost no one.

I think most of us will be happy to see the back of him.

Because while he does seem like a decent and smart guy, he has been rubbish at the job.

This will be good for Police morale, I think, because they have been quite vocal about the fact that they have been unhappy being led by a man who doesn’t seem to actually want to chase down the bad guys quite as much as they do.

And it will be good for public confidence too because I think we would also prefer a Police boss who wants to lock up the perpetrators of this current crime problem we’re experiencing.

Now to be fair to Andrew Coster, the fact that he’s not seeking a second term isn't really that unusual in Police bosses - we haven’t had one go longer than six years since the 1940s.

But the trouble for him is that we all know at least part of the reason he’s going is because he isn’t wanted.

I mean, that was made abundantly clear when after the election, the new Police Minister wouldn't express confidence in Coster. It was even more obvious when Mark Mitchell published that letter telling Coster how to do his job.

Even if he wanted the job, he would've already been told by now behind closed doors that that ain’t happening.

To Coster's credit, he has lifted his game under the new Government, but it's never been convincing. Everything just happens too slow.

I mean, the foot patrols in Auckland are great, but Auckland retailers had to beg for months and hold public meetings to get them.

The crackdown on the boy racers was great, but first, we had to witness officers in Levin retreating from a mob of boy racers.

It just never felt like being discipline daddy was in his nature, even when he tried.

So probably we’ve just got the best outcome for everyone by Coster and the New Zealand Police Force consciously uncoupling in April next year.

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