From exorcisms to Interpol: Who is the country’s new top cop?

Saturday, 30 November 2024

Richard Chambers, 52, has described his new appointment to the role of Police Commissioner as “one of the highlights of my life”.

There was something about the idea of being a police officer that Richard Chambers could never shake, he says, laughing as he remembers one particular photo of himself aged just 5 years old wearing a lopsided police helmet and a grin.

With a high-profile criminal defence barrister as his father, a sense of justice was ingrained in Chambers from a young age as he grew up in Auckland, regularly crossing paths with police officers.

“I met some amazing policemen and policewomen as a kid, so policing was always something I thought of as an option for me,” Chambers told The Post.

Three decades later, Chambers is the newest Police Commissioner. Now the highest ranking police officer in the country, he’s in charge of 15,000 staff across the motu and the enormity of that certainly isn’t lost on him.

“It’s an absolute honour for me to be selected as the leader of New Zealand Police and to lead the organisation that is responsible for providing public safety to all New Zealanders,” he told those gathered for the formal announcement of his appointment last week.

It was day three on the job for Chambers when he sat down with The Post in his corner office with waterfront views just visible through the thick cloud that blanketed central Wellington.

It had already been a busy week for the 52-year-old father of two, but he was calm, collected and gave the appearance (at least) of having all the time in the world for questions. So, who actually is Chambers and how did he get here?

Becoming a ‘good policeman’

Chambers grew up in Tāmaki Makaurau, but spent a year travelling the world after finishing school.

“I wanted to experience a bit of life, I suppose, but decided it was best I come home and go to university to get something under my belt in terms of a qualification.”

And Chambers did just that, gaining a Bachelor of Commerce. After graduating he took up a role in a law firm that provided support to people coming to New Zealand under circumstances that may have amounted to persecution.

The Prime Minister made the announcement, flanked by the new police commissioner, on his first day in his new job. The customer-facing police base will be on Federal St in the city centre. Lisette Reymer reports.

“So in other words, it was all about New Zealand’s obligations under the United Nations Convention for refugees and asylum seekers. That was a really interesting time. I met lots of different people from different walks of life with different stories.”

But Chambers remained steadfast in his childhood dream of becoming a police officer, so set about trying to speak to serving officers to get the lie of the land.

By January 1996, Chambers had enrolled in Police College and six months later he began his career with a stint as a constable at Avondale police station in Auckland.

An unfortunate incident early on in his policing career involving a police vehicle and a small cat landed Chambers with the nickname ‘Felix’ that still haunts him to this day.

Alongside his nickname, one thing that has remained constant throughout Chambers’ policing career is his desire to be a “good policeman”.

“I wanted to be a good policeman back in ‘96 and I still want to be a good policeman in 2024.”

Exorcisms and fraudsters

With remarkable speed, Chambers was encouraged to become a detective by his superiors. Within two years of being in the police force, he had joined the Criminal Investigation Branch.

“I had some really amazing mentors back in my early career. I think they saw this fresh-faced constable who was interested in investigations and knew how to put a good file together, which is a really important thing for detectives.”

Throughout his time as an investigator, Chambers worked on some “fascinating cases”. From exorcisms to serial fraudsters, he can still recount the details of many of them today.

“There was one where we had an individual who held strong religious beliefs that had begun to become extreme.

Richard Chambers thanked his colleagues for encouraging him to apply for the role in the first place.

“He believed that a woman in his life was possessed by demons, and thought that he could relieve her of those demons - but actually as a result of his actions, she died, and he was arrested and convicted of manslaughter,” Chambers recalled.

The self-styled pastor in question was Luke Lee, who was jailed for his role in the death of one of his disciples, Joanna Lee (no relation).

While other church members restrained her, Luke Lee “bounced” on Joanna Lee’s stomach and held her neck trying to dislodge the demon.

As the demon supposedly made its way up from Joanna Lee’s stomach towards her neck, Luke Lee placed his hands round her throat to force it out. She began to convulse and later died, the NZ Herald reported at the time.

In the early 2000s, Chambers was also instrumental in ending Canadian John Davy’s fraudulent pretences in Aotearoa.

“He’d come to New Zealand, manipulated who he was and secured a fairly high profile role based on fraudulent details and it turned out, it wasn’t the first time he’d done this.

“He was a classic fraudster in the sense that he’d done it so many times that I’m sure, on some level, he actually believed he was now that person.”

According to historical reporting, Davy faked his CV to become the first boss of what was then Māori Television, having claimed he held a Master of Business Administration degree, had worked for international organisations such as World Wildlife Fund and was a national fencing champion.

While Chambers loved his time working as a detective (“it’s like putting a big puzzle together”, he jokes), it was also during this time that he came closest to leaving the police force altogether.

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers is now responsible for 15,000 police staff across the motu.

“The toughest thing I have done in my entire career was working as an investigator on crimes against children. I’d never been exposed to that before in any way, shape or form, it was so bad and so sad and so traumatic that I was struggling to do my job”.

For the first time, Chambers questioned whether he was cut out for policing.

“I didn’t want my peers to think I wasn’t coping with the job, I didn’t want to show that vulnerability and was so proud of being a policeman, but I honestly considered leaving.”

Through the support of his wife, Kim Chambers, who he had met through her work as a journalist and his work as a detective, Chambers was able to get through his stint working in the crimes against children department.

“She helped me realise that there was a way forward, but that perhaps my role now was to be a leader in policing to support others to do the investigating.”

Climbing the ranks

Throughout his 30 years in the police force, Chambers has held an array of roles and ranks across the country.

From frontline supervisory roles in Auckland and Wellington, to working as the Tasman District Commander and relieving as the Southern District Commander, Chambers has - almost - done it all.

One notable moment in Chambers’ career was his role in bringing to an end the occupation of Parliament on March 2, 2022.

The major police operation, dubbed Operation Convoy, aimed to expel hundreds of protesters from the precinct surrounding the Beehive but was met with violence of a kind not seen in New Zealand’s recent history.

The new Police Commissioner made a name for himself on the national policing landscape with his role in ending the Parliament occupation in 2022.

“It was a fascinating time. Mandates divided our country in a way we haven’t seen since the 1981 Springboks tour,” Chambers said.

Over the course of the 23-day occupation of Parliament grounds, Chambers was responsible for more than 2000 staff members who were in some way assisting the police response.

“In the background, we were working up a plan that could only ever have one outcome - to bring it all to the end. It takes a long time to plan for something of that scale.

By the end of the occupation, the Parliament protests had become a “melting pot” for a host of grievances, Chambers said.

“It got aggressive, it got messy but at the end of the day, we got the right outcome. It was certainly tough, but we just had to focus on getting the outcome we wanted because we knew there wouldn’t be a second chance.”

Weeks of bitter tensions reached a boiling point on that March day with rioters forcefully pushing back against police, pulling bricks from the pavement to use as projectiles to launch at officers while flames licked the remnants of “Camp Freedom”.

Seventy police staff were hurt during the clash, with seven requiring hospitalisation.

“I’m incredibly proud of the staff that helped play a role throughout the occupation. Everyone had a role to play,” Chambers said.

A foray into international policing

In February of this year, Chambers was seconded to a role with international policing agency Interpol, which works with 196 countries around the world.

Based in Lyon in France, Chambers was the director of organised and emerging crime, which included organised criminal activity, human trafficking, crimes against children and environmental crime.

“I feel very privileged to have got to experience that kind of policing, and to see firsthand the different things that challenge other countries.

“For example, I was leading operations that were focused on significant movements of drugs. One month we found over 50 tonnes of cocaine. We seized 15 aeroplanes and a submarine.”

For Chambers, the hope is that his time with Interpol will be able to inform his role as Police Commissioner here in New Zealand.

“We’re a rich country so we can become a target, but I think my time with Interpol has made me very alert to global issues and how to get ahead of things like technology being used in crimes.”

But, Chambers missed New Zealand during his time in France: “In the end the decision to come home for the role was easy”.

The simple recipe for a sustainable life

Having arrived back in Aotearoa just days before he was announced as the new Police Commissioner, Chambers had to leave behind his wife and two teenage daughters in Lyon.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell described Chambers as “highly respected, a top leader, with a deep understanding of frontline policing”.

Although the time away from his family will mean he can dive headfirst into his new job, Chambers admitted he’ll be relieved when they re-join him on Christmas Eve.

“At the end of the day, I’m a parent and a husband, and it’s hard to be away from them.

“I’ve been married to my wife for over 20 years, and she’s my biggest supporter. She’s the person I know I can go home to and get an honest answer. She’s the reason I’m still here in the police force at all.”

As his daughters start to talk about the possibility of joining the police force too, policing has become somewhat of a family business for the Chambers family, with his sister working as a police officer in schools in Tauranga.

“They’re my biggest supporters, and are going to be the ones that support me through the next five years.”

While Chambers expects he’ll travel around the country a lot through his new job, Wellington will be his base for the next five years and predicts runs along the waterfront will be instrumental in maintaining his personal well-being.

“I always focus on five things - exercise, nutrition, sleep, spending time with my family and time on my own doing whatever I like, be it fishing or mountain biking or whatever.

“Without those five things, I start to really feel things getting tougher. Throughout my entire commissionership they’ll be the things that will help keep me at my best.”

Defining the newest Police Commissioner

Welcomed to virtual fanfare from officers on the ground around the country, Chambers holds the promise of being a new kind of commissioner - one who fights for the troops.

“The frontline has been a really big part of what I am as a policeman and I want it to stay that way as commissioner. I’ve said it already, but while I may be the Police Commissioner, at the end of the day I’m still a constable.

“The heart and soul of New Zealand Police are the frontline men and women who go out there every day and night and do an amazing job. That’s why people like myself as the Commissioner and other leaders must always remain focused on supporting the work they do.”

Indeed, Chambers has already laid out his four priorities for his tenure as Commissioner - supporting the safety and well-being of frontline staff, strengthening “core policing” and law enforcement, visible and connected leadership, and sharp fiscal management.

With a predecessor whose comments about the philosophy of “policing by consent” made him something of a political punching bag, Chambers has also been keen to distance himself from former-Commissioner Andrew Coster from the get-go.

“I don't talk about policing by consent,” Chambers told reporters last week. “I talk about trust and confidence, and it is fundamentally important that police have the trust and confidence of the public, and we've got some work to do.”

But where Coster came to be known as the “Covid-19 Commissioner”, perhaps Chambers will be the “communications Commission”.

“A very wise person once said to me that if you do these two things, you’ll be off to a good start. One of them is to never lose sight of common sense and the second is that communication is a very powerful tool.

“I’m going to try not to overcomplicate things and do my best to keep connected.”