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Rotorua police were following positive lines of enquiry in catching the woman who allegedly bashed a pregnant woman in front of a crowd in central Rotorua this week.
The woman, whose pregnancy was not showing, was dragged from a dairy and attacked - including being kicked and stomped on - in front of about 20 people in Pukuatua St about 10.30am on Wednesday.
Acting area commander Inspector Ed van den Broek said police had good photos of the alleged offender.
However, they still wanted to hear from anyone who saw the incident or who had information on it.
He urged people to call police if they saw such an incident, and think twice before intervening.
"If you are feeling confident and make a judgement that you can step in, then do so, but people have to be cautious as you don't know what you are dealing with," he said.
"People could be armed with weapons or there could be supporters of the offender in the crowd that may take offence."
Once police were called witnesses should note details that could help in any investigation including descriptions of those involved and vehicle registration numbers.
Filming or taking photos of the violent situation should be done discreetly and only if there was no personal risk, he said.
Rotorua police had increased beat patrols in the central city over the holiday period and that would continue until the end of the school holidays.
Meanwhile, clinical psychologist Barry Kirker said people did not step in to help the pregnant woman because of "bystander apathy" - a phenomena which has been studied since the 1950s.
Those studies showed people who were part of a large group were less likely to intervene in such an incident if no one else did, something known as diffusion of responsibility.
"Everyone thinks 'well why should I do it, there's 20 other people here', so then nobody does," Mr Kirker told APNZ.
"There's no pressure for anyone to take any accountability to do it."
Once someone did step in, others tended to follow, and it was more likely people would step up if only small numbers were involved.
The Rotorua incident flared when the victim was followed into a dairy by a young woman screaming and yelling abuse at her, including calling her a "black b****".
Witnesses said the attacker was accusing the victim of "sleeping with her man".
When asked to leave by the dairy owner, the woman went outside and continued the abuse from the doorway. The dairy owner, who did not want to be named, said the victim was terrified and did not want to leave the shop.
A witness at the bus stop said: "We saw the chicky nutting off at the girl in the shop telling her to come out. The girl wouldn't come out so she went into the shop and started slapping the girl around and dragged her out by the collar of her jersey and pulled her across the ground.
"She dragged her around the corner and started assaulting her."
The victim, who was treated at Rotorua hospital for facial injuries, said she had never seen her attacker before and did not know why she was set upon.
