Ross Meurant: Performance Paramount in the Jungle

I applaud the Operational Deployments, undertaken by the NZ Police, since Richard Chambers was appointed to the position of Commissioner of Police.

Across the front-line, breakers of the law, who somehow avoided police intervention during the rule of Commissioner Coster, are now regularly being brought before the Courts.

This is a noticeable change, in my assessment, of Operational Deployment, in the “jungle” - the police patrol.

Whether the Courts will also change their approach to dealing with offenders, is another thing altogether.

If the appointment of a police commissioner, bequeaths perspicacity on the political selector, Hon Mark Mitchell collects collateral kudos. 

Chambers joined the police 9 years after I departed as the commissioned officer in charge of criminal intelligence and V.I.P. security.  Chambers' recruitment also happened to coincide with the end of my 9-year term as Member of Parliament.  Accordingly, we did not serve at the same time and I had no exposure to his performance - which is the exact opposite to the former police commissioners referred to below. 

I knew Richard’s farther – a barrister with whom I clashed, in various Court room dramas – in the days of profile defence lawyers Kevin Ryan and Peter Williams.

Some of my generation detectives, referred to Roger Chambers as “superintendent” – because of the balanced approach he took i.e. neither fear nor favour – in his pursuit of the truth.

Feedback I have on Roger’s son, Richard, from ex cops who did serve as his immediate supervisors, has all been: “He was a good front line cop who never shirked”.

Commissioner Chambers' performance – as a former “front-line officer who never shirked”, resonates.  It also exposes the operational ineptitude (my opinion) of former Commissioner Coster – and his predecessors. 

Gone, appears to be the “woke” mandate and “rainbow” coloured police cars.  Gone, appears to be what many New Zealanders perceived to be, racial prejudice in police performance in the jungle i.e. “If you’re Māori you get a warning”.

We are, after all, equal before the law.

The difference between Commissioner Chambers present performance juxtaposed the outputs of his predecessors, resonate like a clarion.

As I look back, I recall welcoming Coster’s appointment – why?  He followed what I list below.  But I was wrong.

The appointment of former Commissioner Howard Broad in 2006 and extending to the terms of engagement of Peter Marshall followed by Mike Bush – ending 2020, began what I consider to have been, a period often of excessive application of police deployment culminating in abuse of power. (1)

From the Tuhoe raids and demand for new “terror” legislation (existing legislation was and remains quite capable of dealing with “terrorists”) to excessive force applied to Dotcom’s residential raid (both examples criticised by Higher Courts).

From the banality of rejecting the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Crewe homicides. Commissioner Marshall presiding over an internal review of clear evidence of fabricated ballistics and perjury to convict the man who did not kill Jeanette and Harvey Crewe, was not only an insult to NZ Justice, but a shocking indictment of the level of intelligence which resided in the Commissioner’s office – during the time of this review.

To gung-ho cops swaggering armed about the streets of NZ during reign of Commissioner Mike Bush under the umbrella of the reign of the most destructive, divisive, dangerous deliverer of democracy (if you could still claim New Zealand was a democracy during Mz Ardern’s tenure), New Zealand has ever witnessed. (2)

These days are now past.

I now look forward with confidence, in the police, I was once proud to serve.

However, I offer sage warning to Commissioner Chambers - for the “jungle” still sends me signals.  If you perform well, you will attract adversaries within.

“As you find out once again in politics (or police or any office), don’t worry about your enemies. You can always see them. It’s your friends you have to worry about. They come from behind.”  - Wallace Rowling

Ross Meurant BA MPP. Company Director. www.gena.co.nz Former Police Inspector, Member of Parliament & Honorary Consul.

(1) https://natlib.govt.nz/records/29814985
(2) https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2023/10/ross-meurant-political-perspicacity.html