Horowhenua Mayor Bernie Wanden has called a violent car rally in Levin on Saturday night "unnecessary" and "senseless".
Two police officers were injured after being "pelted with rocks and bottles", Police said in a release.
The aggressive behaviour followed a large gathering on Bath St at about 8pm. More than 200 cars, each with multiple passengers, were in attendance.
"From what I understand, this is sort of a regular gathering around the bottom half of the North Island," Wanden told Newshub.
"They take the opportunity to go to different towns and areas.
"Unfortunately it escalated into something far more than a car enthusiasts' rally."
Manawatu Area Commander Inspector Ross Grantham said police vehicles were also damaged in the incident overnight to Sunday.
"Around 30 officers were deployed to the area pre-emptively and were put at serious risk due to the aggressive behaviour of many of those involved," he added.
Wanden said the police presence was considerably more than Levin usually sees on a Saturday night.
"But essentially, they were outnumbered quite considerably," he said.
"The message from us is that police were unable to disperse that gathering and they need more powers to be able to do so."
Six cars were impounded after the event, one person was arrested for disorderly behaviour, and another was arrested for obstruction.
Police will now also be dealing with future anti-social driving behaviours differently too.
Insp Grantham said "behaviours such as burnouts will be observed from a distance and officers will be utilising footage taken and received, to follow up on illegal behaviour".
He said police would be utilising tools such as CCTV, and other information gathered at the time, to follow up any other criminal offending from the incident in Levin on Saturday night.
"Police thank everyone who reported concerns to us, and appeal to anyone who has information on illegal or unsafe activity to report this to police via 105 with as much detail as possible."
