NI race hate crime reports up by one third, police say

Disorder in Belfast in August saw businesses attacked

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has said operational figures show that the number of reported race hate crimes in the last year may have risen by a third when compared to the previous twelve months.

That would amount to an increase of more than 400 incidents.

The PSNI has also said that the cost of policing street violence and racially motivated attacks in the last month has been £3.5m on top of normal operations.

Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said an investigation team was working through more than 3,500 hours of footage from CCTV and cameras worn by police officers.

There have been 45 arrests linked to incidents, seven of them children.

Additional neighbourhood police officers are on duty around schools to provide reassurance to minority communities as term time begins.

Police said they accept there is a fear factor around reporting race hate crime and helping identify suspects within communities.

The clearance rate for race hate crime is low, just over 10%.