Eastern District Command Centre Senior Sergeant Mike Stevenson said they were aware of a group, and several times over the last two weeks had located youths and returned them to their home addresses.
Police were concerned about the welfare of these young people and would continue to ensure their safety, he said. Social services and Police Youth Aid were involved.
Hawke's Bay Youth Services Sergeant Ross Stewart said a number of youths had been "out and about" in Napier, congregating at fast food outlets or along Marine Parade.
Parents and caregivers were reminded to make sure they knew their children's whereabouts, when they would be home, or where they would spend the night.
"Police response to any concerns will be on a case-by-case basis, and we will endeavour to ensure young people are returned to their home addresses safely, and appropriate agencies notified if necessary."
When asked if the increase in this activity could be linked to school holidays, a police spokeswoman said, "This has been something the officers have noticed over the last two weeks, and as the weather has improved."
The agency involved with at-risk children is Oranga Tamariki. Its Wellington/East Coast general manager Grant Bennett said they had been made aware of reports from Napier residents concerned about young people who might be sleeping rough.
"Our role is to support children and youth who might be at risk and support them and their family and wider whanau where that support is needed," he said.
"We will be talking and working with Police to understand this situation."
Napier's Community Housing Action Team spokeswoman, Michelle Pyke, said she thought some of the group might be genuine rough sleepers, but doubted the accuracy of 15 runaways.
Despite this, she said an issue for any genuine teenagers in such a situation was that they could be taken back to a place they were unhappy at.
"When ... we come across teenagers in distress, and homeless, all we can do is try and get them back with family they do feel comfortable with or a non-family member that they are safe with and work with it that way," she said.
"There's no way we just return them to a place they say is not safe, whether it's true or not we just don't do that, you do a little bit of investigation work."
Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said he could not comment on the young rough sleepers, as he was not aware of the circumstances around the situation.
Rough sleeping was a "complicated issue", but work was ongoing with a cross-agency approach to dealing with the city's growing population of beggars and homeless people.
Earlier this year, the group was blamed for increased reports of disorderly behaviour.
Progress is being made by a council-led cross agency campaign to help vulnerable and high-risk community members. Street patrols were implemented earlier this year, and the Helping Hands campaign will intensify during summer.
The woman who wrote the social media post did not respond to requests for comment.
Police encouraged anyone with concerns for the welfare of these young people, "or for anyone in our community" to contact the police.
