Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Waitara police have called for community help to tackle dirt bike riders buzzing the town and taunting police.
Sergeant Kane Moses asked the Waitara Community Board to spread the word that police need locals to report nuisance motorcyclists so more resources can be aimed at the problem.
"I hear a lot of people saying, 'everyone knows who they are'. Everyone may know who they are but no one's telling us who they are - that's what we need."
He said it was easy for dirt bike riders to outrun police.
"With them being so nimble, they just nip up on the stopbank and they can disappear from us really quickly."
The typically unregistered bikes had no identification, so police were reliant on public information.
"If we know these bikes come from a specific address, we need people to let us know so we can go and do some proactive stuff at those addresses, talking to people and putting some pressure on them."
Moses said despite residents saying it was a "massive problem", police receive very few complaints.
"I think that's probably because people are just so accustomed to and fed up with it, but if people don't ring us ... I can't get any traction getting assistance from staff in [New Plymouth]."
"They'll say 'ok well what evidence do you have this is actually an issue?' I need to go back to them and say we've had 19 calls of motorbikes causing issues over the last two weeks and that gives me the ammunition."
Councillor Tony Bedford asked whether police faced excessive paperwork for chasing riders.
Moses said the paperwork had improved but the danger of pursuit was the problem.
"It is dangerous, and we don't want anyone to die with us chasing them on these bikes, which has happened before.
"With the risks involved around people crashing and then the liability coming back on us we generally won't chase motorbikes, unless there's something significant.
"If it's just their manner of driving, we won't chase them."
He recalled one rider brazenly taunting police one night last week.
"There's a guy comes on the footpath outside our station on a dirt bike doing wheelies, provoking us basically.
"I went out there starting filming him on my phone and he's no helmet, 70 kilometres an hour doing a wheelie straight through the stop sign onto McLean Street - so someone's going to get seriously hurt."
Moses said they could access the town's security cameras but options to identify riders were limited.
The overseas-inspired urban dirt bike subculture has spread across the country since Covid-19.
In Auckland, police believe the Killer Beez gang may be using the bikes as a prize for gang prospects who prove their worth.
Riders typically do not wear helmets, and some have been seriously injured or killed after crashing bikes in South Auckland in recent years.
A school principal in Rotorua warned in June that frustrated residents were talking about taking matters into their own hands.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
