Question: when Andrew Coster blamed cops for killing fleeing drivers, was it a slip of the tongue or an insight into his thinking?

On TV earlier this week, he said that in the last ten years when police were chasing cars “we killed 60 people through police pursuits”.

Sounds a lot like Coster was blaming cops there and no surprise it apparently upset some frontline police officers.

As a result, Coster has apologised.

He sent out an email to staff in which he says he’s sorry, he’s “very proud” of the work officers do and "I am very clear that responsibility for harm caused must ultimately fall at the feet of the fleeing driver”.

Slip of the tongue or insight into his thinking?

The trouble for Coster is his track record in the job will probably cause many of us and possibly many of his officers to assume he does actually believe what he said.

I feel like he’s appeared too eager to allow blame to be shifted onto his officers and away from criminals.

Even yesterday, he was on this show talking about investigating his own police to see if they’re racist or not.

Maybe they are. Or maybe they’re just arresting the criminal in front of them regardless of race.

Front line officers seem to have been frustrated by Coster for a while.

They apparently call him ‘The Lantern’: very bright but needs carrying.

They roll their eyes when he starts banging on about policing by consent.

They didn’t want to babysit iwi-led checkpoints, they don’t want to be called racists and they don’t want to be stopped from cracking down on crime because he prefers a softer approach.

Realising he got that comment wrong and apologising is a good start to fixing it.

But not saying it in the first place and not believing it either would be better.