Kawakawa's business association called a community meeting last month after police numbers dropped temporarily from a sergeant and six constables to two constables; Kaitaia had a meeting on the same night, raising concerns about a spike in break-ins and youth crime.
Mr Dawson said he wanted to work with the organisers of the Kawakawa and Kaitaia meetings to invite Ms Tolley, Police Commissioner Peter Marshall, Northland MP Mike Sabin, business owners and community representatives to a district-wide meeting. It would not be a "public slanging match" but a chance to ask questions and listen to the Minister.
His job meant he saw the problems police faced every day, but Mr Dawson said he was trying to draw attention to the issue simply as a concerned member of the public.
"Someone has to take the lead and help the police get something done,"he said.
Some nights only one officer was on duty between Towai and Taupo Bay. While more were on call, it would be 20 minutes by the time they got out of bed, got dressed, tooled up and started driving, he said.
Ms Tolley said by law she was not allowed to get involved in the operational deployment of police staff.
"That is the responsibility of police, not politicians, and I back our police to get this right," she said.
She said robberies, burglaries and thefts had dropped in Northland last year, and police funding had been maintained in the budget. Smartphones and tablets were being rolled out to frontline staff, cutting the time they had to spend on paperwork in their stations and allowing them to spend an extra half million hours on the beat nationally.
She did not comment on whether she would attend a community meeting in the Far North.
Mr Dawson said staff deployment was not the issue.
The real problem was funding - the current freeze on thepolice budget was effectively a cut - and only the Government could change that.
Mr Sabin, a former police officer in Kaitaia, said he understood the challenges police commanders faced but could not interfere in their day-to-day operations.
"As an MP I can't just wade into police matters," he said.
He did, however, make sure he raised community concerns with his Caucus colleagues or police management.
If police were concerned about staffing levels they needed to raise it with their superiors, who could take it to the Minister.
In a large rural area like the Far North there would always be times when there were not enough police to respond to an incident and bac-up was a long way away.
"Of course we'd welcome more police, but it's not the case that you raise police numbers and the problem goes away," Mr Sabin said.
He also pointed out that reported crime across New Zealand was at a 30-year low.
