A tearful Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says he’s proud his son wants to join the force, despite the risks.
Coster spoke to Sunday following the guilty verdict for Eli Eipha on charges of trying to kill West Auckland officer David Goldfinch in June 2020.
Epiha had already admitted murdering Matthew Hunt, 28.
Sunday speaks to Hunt’s mother Diane, who tells the story of her son’s life and calls for a change in policing in the face of growing gun violence.
Sunday’s Matt Chisholm asked Coster what he thought about his son wanting to join the force in a rapidly changing environment, where criminals are using guns and weapons more frequently.
“I’m proud. Policing isn’t something you go into because you want to sit at a desk shuffling paper, you go into it because you want to help your community, you go into it because you care,” he said.
“So I’m proud.”
Coster said on the whole, being a police officer was “relatively safe”.
“I know the incidents that go wrong really hurt us and they stand out. But we have 10,000 officers undertaking thousands of interactions and the vast majority of those are safe.
“One incident is one too many, but New Zealand is a great place to police, and this is a great job.”
Watch the full story on TVNZ1’s Sunday at 7.30pm or OnDemand.
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