Central Hamilton and Māngere South have topped the list of Kiwi suburbs where police recorded the most gun crime in the past year, a Herald analysis has found.

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.

Recorded gun crime includes any offences reported to police recorded as having involved a firearm. Not all would have led to criminal charges.

The figures encompass everything from shootings to licensing breaches to illegal weapons dealing to possessing prohibited firearms.

Several of the areas ranked highest for firearms crimes from August 2021 to July 2022 have experienced year-on-year decreases.

Māngere South, a large area with about 9000 people covering the southern part of residential Māngere plus the sprawling industrial area around Auckland Airport, had 26 recorded gun crimes over the past year, down from 41 in August 2019 to July 2020 and 33 in 2020-2021.

The joint highest area, Hamilton Central, also had 26 recorded firearms offences over the past year, down from 29 in 2019-2020.

Among the top ten areas for firearms crime, the relatively sparsely populated inner city area units of Cathedral Square in Christchurch and downtown Palmerston North were by far the highest on a per capita basis.

The latest population data for the Cathedral Square area unit shows 651 residents, giving a rate of gun crime of 384 incidents per 10,000 population - though many firearms offences committed in the inner city will be committed by people resident elsewhere.

In comparison, Māngere South had 30 incidents per 10,000 residents.

• Wairoa mayor: Open lines with gangs in the town helped reduce gun crime
• Chris Hipkins: New law gives Police another tool to combat gun crime

Generally the highest rates of per capita firearm crime are in central cities or extremely sparsely populated rural areas, where just one gun offence can shoot the area up the rankings.

WAIROA'S SECRET TO REDUCING GUN CRIME

More cops and open lines of communication with gangs has helped Hawke's Bay town Wairoa turn a corner on gun crime, its Mayor Craig Little said.

Of the nearly 2000 area units for which police recorded data on gun crimes, the area with the biggest year-on-year decrease is Wairoa in the Hawke's Bay.

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.

Wairoa District Council Mayor Craig Little. Photo / Neil Reid.

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.

"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 better place.

"You've got to talk to them. And the police are doing a really good job with that as well."

- Chris Knox and George Block, NZ Herald