A community in Whangārei is working alongside police and other search teams in the hunt for a local man with dementia who has been missing since Wednesday.
Northland Police are continuing the search for Brian Bench, 72, who went missing after going for a walk on Wednesday night.
"We would like to acknowledge the people that have assisted with their calls and are urging members of public to report any sightings that they may have had of him," police said in a statement today.
Bench was last known to be at an address on Memorial Drive, near Riverside Drive on Wednesday night.
He was possibly in the Whangārei CBD area at around 7am yesterday, police said.
Detective sergeant Paul Overton told 1 NEWS police are asking the community to check their backyards as part of the search.
“We are covering all those avenues at this stage," Overton said adding the search will continue into tomorrow.
He said the fact Bench had not made contact with anyone was obviously a concern, as was his dementia, which he described as being "bad enough that we are concerned".
Today, Skywork Helicopters became involved in the search, along with the Coastguard, Northland LandSAR (search and rescue), police SAR, police dogs and a large number of people from the local community.
Overton said the police dive squad has not been involved at this stage but teams were "checking the waterways, utilising the Coastguard".
He said the dive squad "will be something we will consider tomorrow".
Overton also acknowledged the "good support" that was coming from the community.
"We have an operations base set up at Madhatters Football Club where we have a police van where the teams are working," he told 1 NEWS.
Overton said the search will continue until low light this evening and start again around 7am tomorrow.
Local man Mike Wooding told 1 NEWS he spent yesterday looking for Bench, who he has known for decades.
"I’ve known him through sport - tennis and golf for 40 years," he said, adding the community are "very concerned" about his disappearance.
"It was all pretty new yesterday but there are more people out today. I was looking around Riverside and Memorial Drive...the police had dogs and Northland Rescue were looking."
Wooding said Bench is well-known in Whangārei from his car stereo business and sponsorship "back in the day".
"He ran the Kamo rugby and tennis club."
"Everyone’s chipping in, there is quite a big part of the community that are looking for him at the moment," Wooding said.
"I would be guessing there could be 100 people looking for him."
Anyone with information about possible sightings can contact Police on 105, quoting file number 210708/9824 or call 111.
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