Cuddles Coster: Consent or concede?
He’s variously described as ‘a very smart man’ and a ‘wokester’, so who is Andrew Coster, the top cop struggling to deal with Parliament’s protesters, and what’s going on in his head? Andrea Vance investigates.
Commentators call him Cuddles Coster. Simon Bridges publicly accused him of being a ‘‘wokester’’. And frontline cops have nicknamed him The Lantern (very bright but needs carrying).
So just who is the man in charge of New Zealand’s police? And why is he taking a softly-softly approach to the rabble of protesters camping on Parliament’s lawn and paralysing downtown Wellington?
Coster was a surprise pick for the top job. Rank and file officers wanted Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement, a 42-year-veteran of policing.
Clement had worked on Operation Austin, an investigation into historical sexual allegations against former and serving police officers. He won the respect of then-police minister Stuart Nash, who invited him to oversee the gun buyback scheme established in the wake of the Christchurch terror attack. With Commissioner Mike Bush overseas, Nash also asked Clement to run the Whakaari/White Island recovery operation.
But Coster interviewed extremely well, and ministers wondered about Clement’s enthusiasm for the job. ‘‘[Clement] was operational, knew it inside out. He was an old-school cops’ cop,’’ a Beehive source said.
‘‘Coster is a very smart man. It was a choice between the old-school policing and someone who was going to take police to the next philosophical level.’’
The Government was impressed by Coster’s ideas on how police should work in a modern, multicultural society ‘‘where the Treaty was the basis of race relations, and where the police service had been hauled over the coals for unconscious bias’’, the source said. It aligned with their progressive policies.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern selected Coster in early March 2020, praising his ‘‘positivity, inclusion and integrity.’’
He is not, as the persistent online conspiracy theory asserts, her cousin. Coster was Auckland city area commander between 2009 and 2013, and they met when she twice contested the Auckland Central seat. ‘‘I’ve observed his passion for a police force that knows its strength lies in what it can achieve with the community it serves,’’ Ardern said, announcing
Coster joined the force in 1996, aged 20. He graduated from Porirua police college the following year, taking out top marks in his wing with the minister of police’s prize, and a trophy for computer studies.
Born in Dunedin, he had a privileged upbringing in Auckland, the son of a GP and a nurse. Leaving school he was a telephone salesman before his Christian faith compelled him to join the police.
Deployed as a constable to Ma¯ ngere, South Auckland’s poverty was a shock. ‘‘It was such a big contrast to my own experience.’’
A steady rise through the ranks followed, eventually making detective in 2001.
Criminologist Jarrod Gilbert tells a story of how Coster sat multiple detective exams in one day. ‘‘The people running them made him stop. He was studying in the car park, sitting one, going back to the car to study another and then sitting that,’’ he says.
Two years later, Coster quit to train as a lawyer. For a brief spell he was a crown prosecutor at Meredith Connell in Auckland. But within a year, he was back in uniform, as a sergeant, senior sergeant and then district deployment manager in Counties Manukau.
His next promotion was a big one – area commander of Auckland City Central, and its Armed Offenders Squad. He launched a crackdown on alcohol-related disorder as the country geared up for the Rugby World Cup, raiding ‘‘trouble spots’’ including a strip club, and increasing visibility on the busy streets.
Just over a decade ago, demonstrators took over Auckland’s Aotea Square, part of Occupy, a global movement protesting against US banks and international money-movers. They stayed for months, defying a court order requiring them to move.
After three months, police and Auckland Council security guards moved in, removing tents and equipment and arresting more than 30 people. Within a day, the protesters were back, marching on Auckland central police station before causing considerable traffic disruption and straining the patience of locals.
A year later, Coster returned to Dunedin, as the district commander for the Southern Police District, the youngest officer to serve in the role. He promised to make it ‘‘the safest place to live and visit in the world’’. But he would preside over a particularly dark time.
In January 2014, Edward Livingstone shot and killed his 9-year-old son Bradley and 6-year-old daughter Ellen with a 12-gauge shotgun as they slept. He was found dead in the bedroom he once shared with his estranged wife.
Significant failures by police were later revealed. ‘‘We fell short,’’ Coster admitted as he choked back tears during the final day of the inquest into the deaths.
Dunedin police didn’t record and investigate bullet casings given to the children by Livingstone. They also failed to appropriately follow-up allegations the 51-year-old had trapped their mother in her room and raped her. And they gave Livingstone diversion for breaching a protection order, against national policing policy.
‘‘Frontline cops ... call police national headquarters ‘Bullshit Castle’. The perception is that he is an academic and a policy wonk, down on ‘the Beltway’ for too long and has lost touch with the frontline.’’ Former police officer
assistant commissioner responsible for ‘‘strategy and transformation.’’ For a brief spell he was seconded to the Ministry of Justice as a deputy secretary, before returning to take up the acting Deputy Commissioner post.
A former officer who worked alongside Coster, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, says: ‘‘He’s got great policy skills. And you would never, ever question his integrity, he’s a good man. But he’s not the right leader for a police service that is dealing with serious challenges’’.
Coster took over the $700,000+ a year role as New Zealand was leaving its first Covid-19 lockdown. ‘‘Police always shine in situations like these,’’ he said of stepping into the crisis. He faced considerable backlash for allowing iwi to man and establish checkpoints.
Within months, he was dealing with the horror of the fatal shooting of Constable Matthew Hunt and the attempted murder of Constable David Goldfinch in June 2020. Eli Epiha was later sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 27 years for Hunt’s murder.
After the verdict, Coster said there would not be a move towards general arming of officers. An earlier trial of police carrying firearms in Counties Manukau, Waikato and Canterbury was scrapped after widespread opposition, particularly in Ma¯ ori and Pasifika communities. But support for routine arming remains high among 14,000-strong staff, and it is still a live issue.
In September last year, Ardern and Coster addressed the nation following a terror attack in a New Lynn supermarket. Ahamed Aathill Mohamed Samsudeen was already on the radar of authorities, and a police surveillance team and a specialist tactics group had followed him from his home in Glen Eden. The Government had been trying to deport the lone wolf Isis supporter since 2018.
The father-of three’s aspirations grew with the role. He now wants New Zealand to be the ‘‘safest country’’. In a series of media interviews, shortly after taking up the job, he also repeated the same story, of how his son wanted to join the police. ‘‘He wants to do what his dad has done,’’ he told Stuff.
‘‘The question I ask myself is, will police be the organisation that gives him the kind of leadership that he needs to thrive?’’
His challenges include accusations of unconscious bias within the service and the growing tentacles of organised and gang crime.
Commentators adopted the ‘‘Cuddles’’ moniker as gang crime and gun violence escalated, particularly in Auckland.
In February, police launched Operation Tauwhiro, a national, long-term operation to target organised crime and prevent firearms-related violence. Over six months nearly a thousand weapons were seized and more than 856 people arrested. It was extended until next month.
But the perception lingers that police have allowed gangland crime to spiral out of control. Simon Bridges, himself a former prosecutor, went head-to-head with the commissioner – an unusual move for politicians, who tend to reserve their criticism for the police minister.
Frustrated with gang activity in his Tauranga electorate, Bridges publicly branded the commissioner ‘‘a wokester’’, claiming he is more concerned with being nice than ‘‘actually catching criminals’’.
It led to a fiery exchange during a justice select committee hearing when Bridges continued his attack. Coster argued rising gang figures shouldn’t be taken at face value.
The clash heated up over Coster’s philosophy of ‘‘policing by consent’’. Bridges asked: ‘‘Do the police still arrest people in this country?’’
Coster describes the theory: ‘‘We need the vast majority of the public to support us and see what we do as legitimate, so the way we go about our business is fundamentally important.’’ The public wants a ‘‘calm, compassionate and confident approach’’, he argued.
But in the wake of Bridges’ attacks, he denied police had gone soft. ‘‘We are doing more to target organised crime and criminals than we ever have in the past,’’ he said.
The view is not shared on the front line, the former officer says. ‘‘The minute he starts talking about policing by consent his staff give an eye roll. The best way to police by consent is to have the public’s trust and confidence.
‘‘And the best way to do that is to get out there and keep the community safe.
‘‘They’ve moved into a space where people feel that if the police can’t deal with the gangs then who can? It creates fear.’’
Coster does not hold the same respect as former commissioners Peter Marshall and Mike Bush, the ex-cop says. ‘‘Frontline cops are really bad. They have a natural mistrust of anyone in Wellington. They call police national headquarters ‘Bullshit Castle’. But if they know the commissioner has a reputation of being a good street cop, and got their back, then they’ll respond to that.
‘‘The perception is that he is an academic and a policy wonk, down on ‘the Beltway’ for too long and has lost touch with the frontline.’’
But Gilbert, Director of Criminal Justice at the University of Canterbury, says the concept distinguishes New Zealand from other jurisdictions.
‘‘Policing by consent has a very long history. It goes back to the principles of Sir Robert Peel, who defined what modern policing was. In England, Peel distinguished between a police force and a police service. One imposed its will on the people, the other had the consent of the people. That’s deeply entrenched in the very best police services around the world.’’
Gilbert says the principles were lost for a time. ‘‘Without question, there were long periods in New Zealand policing where might made right. They may solve a problem in the short term, but create longerterm problems.
‘‘If you don’t have trust in the police service, if you can’t look at them and seek assistance then the system falls down. Hence, you see the backlash of Black Lives Matter in the US.’’
Now Coster is grappling with the issue of how to remove the ‘‘freedom convoy’’ occupying Parliament grounds without bloodshed. The patience of residents and local business has been sorely tested by the blockaded streets, intimidation, noise and unsanitary conditions.
The incredulous public sees the protesters as winning the battle. They have resolutely defied calls to remove illegally parked vehicles and ignored offers of free parking at the nearby Sky Stadium.
Without tow trucks, the police were impotent to enforce Coster’s promise to move them. And for a time, it seemed the army had taken the phone off the hook when it came to requests for assistance.
Meanwhile, a network of food trucks, kitchens and even a market garden and school have been allowed to spring up with people able to freely come and go from the encampment. By Friday, protesters were controlling access to the grounds.
MPs are increasingly frustrated. There is a sense across the House that police failed to act decisively, allowing the demonstration to dig in. And there are questions about the level of police planning, and exercises to prepare for occupations and protests. Some MPs are privately calling for an inquiry into the response. Bridges was publicly scathing calling the response: ‘‘Dad’s army without the army.’’ The former officer echoed the sentiments. ‘‘They had an opportunity in the first 24 hours to move it and disrupt it. That opportunity has gone past. And it’s now very difficult and complex. There’s hundreds of vehicles. If they start towing, just logistically, it’s going to take weeks.
‘‘There’s a big danger of a flashpoint, and you are going to get a riot with property damage and violence. Really, the only option is to start towing vehicles. Or wait it out, hope they get bored and start to drift off, wait till the numbers get down, and then do an early morning operation to push people out of Parliament grounds.’’
One Beehive source said Coster should have immediately taken charge of the operation. For the first eight days, it was led by Wellington district commander Superintendent Corrie Parnell.
They also questioned the visibility of police minister Poto Williams, who has not been seen offering support to officers holding the line in front of Parliament buildings. She did not comment publicly for a full 10 days – also the length of time it took top national security officials to meet.
‘‘Where is Andy? There is a time and place to show leadership. This is a national issue not just a Wellington district issue,’’ the source said.
‘‘There was a point in time when the police could have sorted this out early on.
‘‘Everyone knew these people were coming. If you want to protest against the Government you come to Parliament, you don’t go down to the waterfront.
‘‘The police should have known, but they weren’t ready for this. They were not networked in to what was going on around the country, let alone around the world.’’