Almost seven years after the Urewera raids, Police Commissioner Mike Bush is expected to return to the area to apologise to families for mistakes made.

The two-day visit to eight family homes is expected to happen at the end of the month, ahead of a Crown apology for historic grievances, which form part of Tuhoe's Treaty of Waitangi settlement, reports Stuff.co.nz

Police cordoned off Ruatoki and Taneatua in 2007 as raids were undertaken in these areas.

A New Zealand Police spokesperson says police have engaged with Tuhoe from the outset.

'They have continued to work with Tuhoe leaders, who have been open and willing to work reciprocally with police to address issues from 2007.

'We have made tentative arrangements with Tuhoe, which we are finalising at the moment.”

Last year the Independent Police Conduct Authority said in a report on the raids that while police were justified in their actions they acted 'unlawfully and unreasonably” in detaining and searching homes and school buses, and creating roadblocks during raids in Ruatoki in 2007.

The report also stated the search of five properties was unlawful and roadblocks in Ruatoki and Taneatua were poorly planned.

But the IPCA said the operation, that resulted in the arrest of 17 people in the Bay of Plenty, Auckland, and Wellington, was justified.

During Operation Eight police focused on the activities of a group of people involved in alleged military style training camps, where people were filmed using Molotov cocktails and firearms in the Urewera forest in the Eastern BOP.

The raids involved more than 300 officers searching properties in the Bay of Plenty, Auckland, Waikato, Christchurch and Wellington using search warrants alleging crimes under the Terrorism Suppression Act.

The IPCA received multiple complaints about the police operation, which began in late 2005 and ended in October 2007.

The IPCA recommended police re-engage with Tuhoe, which police say has been done on both a national and local level.

Stuff.co.nz reports that Tuhoe chief Treaty negotiator, Tamati Kruger, acted on behalf of eight of the affected families to arrange an apology.

"It may be that each family will want to spend between 30 minutes to an hour with him and I think there's going to be an exchange of view.

"I think the families involved would want to impress upon the commissioner the hurt and what they have to bear for the rest of their lives," he said.

The Crown is expected to make an apology on August 22 – to coincide with Tuhoe's $170million settlement.