Gisborne police say the large number of people who helped search for three-year-old Axle near Tolaga Bay last month may have made the search "chaotic".
Axle Hamblyn with his mother Haley Allatt. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
They are looking at ways to improve managing volunteers and are also checking out whether, in future, the highly-specced Eagle police helicopter could be summoned from Auckland.
In early May, more than 100 people searched for Axle, before he was found a day later by a member of the public.
He was found only wearing a nappy, gumboots and a t-shirt, after spending the night in the bush.
Looking back on the search, Tairāwhiti police area commander Inspector Sam Aberahama said it was "all hands to the pump".
But when they could not find him by nightfall, it was "horrible".
"We hadn't found him so what did that mean? Was there anything sinister going on? Or you know, were we just dealing with a boy that was lost? We just didn't know," Aberahama said.
But when Axle was found, police were ecstatic.
"Gosh, we were jumping around the place, it was just a really really good feeling."
Sam Aberahama said it could become dangerous if there were ill-equipped or unfit people out searching. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
Police have had a search debriefing, where they discussed what went well, what was challenging and the lessons they learned.
Aberahama believed they made full use of their resources - search teams, rescue boats along the rivers and a local helicopter.
But he said the number of locals coming along was hard to control.
"It was chaotic, to be quite honest in a sense that people were turning up, they were searching areas that had already been searched.
"It could quite quickly become dangerous - you're not equipped, you're not fit or capable. We didn't want to be looking for half a dozen other people."
He said if it was done again "there's a whole lot of stuff that we would do differently".
"It's around anyone coming to site, we need to know who they are and then have a bit of a plan on where they're going to go then reporting back - so running a register's really important."
The spot where Axle was found, about 3km from home near dense forest bush above Tolaga Bay north of Gisborne. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
But he knew the community played a vital role.
"It's important that we utilise their skills, knowledge and experience to help us support our community, so a big shout out to our volunteers and I look forward to building that capability in partnership and working towards the very best outcomes for our communities."
He said providing regular updates to the community through the likes of social media could be easier.
"Provide them with reassurance around what are we doing, where are we heading and giving them some guidance around actually, 150 people turning up can quite quickly become problematic."
He said some people came and dropped off kai and left which was "cool".
Tairāwhiti police are looking at whether it would be feasible to use Auckland's police Eagle helicopter in future searches. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
Even though they used a local helicopter in the search, Inspector Aberahama said Auckland's police Eagle helicopter would have had more capability.
Key features include a hugely powerful spotlight, heat sensors and night vision.
"I'm sending a couple of the lads up to Auckland to have a look at the Eagle, its capability, its availability and things like how long would that take to deploy here if in the event it was required somewhere on the coast or somewhere throughout Tairāwhiti."
Gisborne LandSAR chairman Alan Hall was also part of the search team.
He said they did not set up a formal structure for the operations team until the next morning.
"When you're dealing with a search of this nature, a little child, lost without his parents and at night and potentially going very cold, our operation sort of was put a little bit to one side on a reaction that we had limited daylight and we needed to find this young boy."
He thought a formal structure might have improved the search earlier.
But he said the news coverage had been good for volunteer numbers.
"We've actually had a good recruitment since this Axle search, young people, just the age bracket that we're after, that have got a bit of experience under their belt and are willing to give up some time."
RNZ contacted Axle's Mum Haley Allat yesterday, who said "everything's OK".
"Life's getting back to normal. Axle's still super famous."
