Detective Inspector Mike Foster said police were working with vulnerable families and in schools in hope of preventing people joining gangs.

It's a sweltering hot Sunday afternoon, Taradale town centre, Hawke's Bay.

A week ago bullets were flying here, a swarm of gangsters were brawling on the main road, shopkeepers ducked for cover and locals were fleeing the place as fast as they could.

On Sunday, some 300 locals did the opposite. They came to the town hall to hear from police, Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise, and local MP (and police minister) Stuart Nash.

ANDREW BROWNE/SUPPLIED Hawke's Bay area police commander Martin James said members of the community had to play their part by "not turning a blind eye".

Packed into the hall, with a broken air-con system, the greatest threat to anyone today was heat exhaustion.

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One man turned up wearing a patch. He'd no sooner made it to a chair than he was escorted out peacefully by several police officers.

JOEL MAXWELL/STUFF Last Sunday cordons were in place on Gloucester St after reports of shots being fired in Taradale, Napier.

Hawke's Bay area police commander Martin James recounted the event that led to the meeting; 30-40 gang members involved in the brawl and shots fired on Gloucester St shortly after 1pm the previous Sunday.

A few hours after the meeting ended, police announced they had made three more arrests in relation to the incident, with a 22-year-old man charged with unlawful assembly, and a 39-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman each charged with unlawful possession of a firearm.

The resounding theme of the meeting, which lasted a little over an hour, was that the gang problem was more than a police problem, and more had to be done to prevent people from joining gangs.

ANDREW BROWNE/SUPPLIED Tania Eden, general manager of Te Taiwhenua o Te Whanganui-a-Orotū, questioned police tactics, saying she had "never seen a cop down the streets of Taradale" in two-and-a-half years of living there.

James said members of the community had to play their part by "not turning a blind eye".

"This is critical. We need your support," he said.

Detective Inspector Mike Foster, who's overseeing the Taradale investigation, said two people had been arrested to date, with more people being sought. While there was a lot of CCTV footage, identifying the men was difficult because they were wearing bandannas or clothing over their face.

ANDREW BROWNE/SUPPLIED Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise said she would facilitate a meeting with iwi, hapū, gang leaders, police and others to "work on a solution".

He spoke of the success the Gang Focus Unit had had since it formed six months ago. That included the arrests of 100 gang members, the seizing of 1kg of methamphetamine, $250,000 in cash, $50,000 in assets, and dozens of stolen vehicles.

One man asked if it was possible to wipe out the methamphetamine problem completely, to which Foster replied it was not.

Another man said his family had lived in Taradale for more than 40 years and he was angry.

JOHN COWPLAND Police are uncertain what has caused the escalation in gang violence in Hawke's Bay.

"This is our patch. It's not their patch", he said to loud applause.

Foster agreed, saying he did not subscribe to the idea of "turf".

Asked why gang members couldn't be arrested for wearing their patches in public, Foster said "we can only operate within the bounds of the law".

Local woman Tania Eden, who is general manager of Te Taiwhenua o Te Whanganui-a-Orotū, said she had spent 20 years working for police around the country and she supported police.

But she questioned what sort of strategies were in place.

"I've been back here for two and a half years and I've never seen a cop down the streets of Taradale," she said, to another round of applause.

"When I was in police we always had police out on the beat and it truly makes a difference," she said.

James said a review that was under way would "potentially see more staff put back into our suburbs". That, also, drew loud favourable response.

Foster said police were working with vulnerable families and in schools in hope of preventing people joining gangs.

"Yesterday, alone we were dealing with a gang gathering and their were little children in patches. It's about getting into the whānau and preventing them from getting into a life of crime basically," he said.

The meeting ended with Wise saying she would be facilitating a meeting with iwi, hapū, gang leaders, police and others to "work on a solution".