Wairoa and central Hastings have both made the country's top 14 for recent recorded gun crime - despite Wairoa's gun-offence rate plummeting in the last three years.
National statistics, released on Tuesday, showed Central Hamilton and Māngere South topped the list of suburbs where police recorded the most gun crime in the past year.
The analysis looked at the statistical area units, typically portions of city centres, suburbs or rural districts usually containing several thousand residents, which had the most recorded gun crime over the past year, according to data held by police.
Of the nearly 2000 area units for which police recorded data, the area with the biggest year-on-year decrease was Wairoa.
Wairoa mayor Craig Little, who's vying for another term at this year's local body elections, said more cops and open lines of communication with gangs had helped the district turn a corner on gun crime.
In 2019/20 and 2020/21, the district recorded 32 and 35 firearms offences respectively. That plummeted to 15 for the period from August last year to July 2022.
Little said better policing in his town coupled with a willingness among community leaders to talk to the gangs is likely behind the decrease.
He said a few years ago it was tough to get cops in the town but police numbers were now up to their full complement.
"The police are in a much better place," he said.
Early last year, a series of shootings in the town, which has a decades-long history of gang conflict and a well-publicised problem with methamphetamine use, prompted an urgent conference between police and community leaders.
Little said the Wairoa Community Partnership Group, formed five years ago and involving regular meetings between police, iwi and community leaders, was proving a success.
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"I do hope that things can change, and it sounds like it might be."
Little singled out one gang leader, patched Mongrel Mob member Bronson Tither, for particular praise.
He said Tither was doing a lot of good work with local youth, such as running fitness boot camps to keep them off the streets.
"He's quite impressive, he lets me know how it's going.
"I can turn up any time I want and I can ring him.
"And that's the key to all the gang issues, I can pick up the phone and ring them all, I know them well."
During earlier periods of gang issues some Wairoa community leaders had refused to engage with gangs, which did not work, Little said.
"I'm not saying we've got over them, we haven't. But we're in a better place.
"You've got to talk to them. And the police are doing a really good job with that as well."
Eastern District Commander Superintendent Jeanette Park said the decrease in recorded firearms offences in the Wairoa area was encouraging for police.
"The unlawful possession of firearms is a concern, and it is great that we have been able to take them out of the wrong hands and get them off the street in many cases," she said.
"Police recognise that there has been a small increase of firearm offences in Hastings and can reassure the community that there is ongoing enforcement action to reduce this number."
Recorded gun crime includes any offences reported to police recorded as having involved a firearm. Not all would have led to criminal charges.
