"Temporary carriage of firearms is no longer in place for police in the Whangārei area," Hill said.
The incident this morning included a police pursuit, which ended with a male driver allegedly firing multiple shots at a police car and officer in Whangārei this morning.
Emergency services, including the Armed Offenders Squad (AOS) and police back-up, were called to the scene.
At 2.13am, a vehicle with two occupants pulled into a checkpoint but drove off before police could speak with the driver.
Shortly after, the driver of the vehicle allegedly fired a shot into the air, the vehicle then stopped and the driver allegedly fired a number of shots at the police unit from the vehicle, Hill said.
None of the shots hit the patrol vehicle and fortunately the officer was not injured, Hill said.
AOS were called in and a short time later police located the vehicle.
"Police acknowledge that this incident will be extremely concerning to our community," Hill said.
"It comes three weeks after two men opened fire on a female police officer's car just south of Kerikeri."
On that occasion, the police vehicle's windscreen was left shattered by a shotgun blast after a car pulled out in front, stopping the patrol vehicle on State Highway 11 in the early hours of October 27.
