Relieving Otago coastal area commander Inspector Craig Brown said police acknowledged the community’s concern following a firearms incident reported in Moray Pl at 3am on Sunday.
Prominent Dunedin activist and former Green Party candidate Jack Brazil was seriously injured by a gunshot wound to the liver at an unknown location.
Police believed the incident was an isolated one.
While investigations were ongoing, Insp Brown hoped the eventual arrest and court appearance of the offender would provide some reassurance.
"Our investigation team is working hard to understand the full circumstances of the incident and continue to follow positive lines of inquiry," he said.
Police took all firearms offences very seriously and the Southern district had its share of firearms-related incidents, as did all police areas.
"While we acknowledge that there have been several incidents of concern recently, these have been isolated incidents with no specific links or driving factors," Insp Brown said.
Police continuously reviewed long-term trends in reported crime, which suggested offending involving firearms was stable rather than trending upward.
The shooting follows three other firearms incidents in Dunedin since the start of March.
On March 3, a man sparked an eight-hour rooftop standoff with armed police after allegedly threatening to shoot officers while wielding an imitation firearm. A search of his vehicle revealed a .308 firearm and various bladed weapons, police said.
He was charged with unlawfully having a firearm, possession of an offensive weapon and unlawfully getting into a vehicle.
A week later, on March 10, a shotgun was allegedly fired in a drive-by shooting in Thomas Burns St.
Armed police searched the wrong home later that afternoon, but four days later arrested a 25-year-old man, who has been charged with attempted murder.
An 54-year-old accomplice has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, allegedly concealing the firearm.
Three shots from a .22 calibre firearm were fired in Manor Pl on Easter Monday.
A 44-year-old man was arrested later that day and has since appeared in court, charged with discharging a firearm to intimidate, while an accomplice remains at large.
University of Canterbury emeritus professor of criminology Greg Newbold said nationwide there had been a pattern of increasing gun crime, largely as a result of gang activity.
However the string of Dunedin incidents was likely a fluke.
If all the incidents were completely isolated, it was likely their happening together was random.
"If the trend continues then people should be worried," Prof Newbold said.
Former jailhouse lawyer Arthur Taylor, of Dunedin, formerly imprisoned for offences involving firearms, believed the South was increasingly home to offenders from up north who had "a different way of doing things".
There were also more 501 deportees driving an increase in firearms offences, although there was nothing to suggest they were involved in any of the incidents.
Many serious offenders had moved to the South due to housing pressures and being released in the area after being moved to Otago Corrections Facility while serving their sentences.
It was unlikely the public needed to worry, as it tended to be just the criminal fraternity who were involved in such incidents, Mr Taylor said.
