The number of racist attacks in Northern Ireland has surged by 60 per cent in the last year, police chiefs revealed yesterday.
Assaults on gays and lesbians also doubled during the same period.
Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton confirmed the figures during a briefing to the Policing Board in Belfast.
Although police met targets in several key areas including burglaries, car crime and drink-driving, the monitoring body expressed concern over performances. While detection rates for violent crime rose to 48.5 per cent, they still fell short of the 55 per cent goal set in the policing plan.
Confidence levels among people who think the PSNI does a good job was 62 per cent, against a target of 70 per cent.
But board members were shocked to learn the extent to which hate crimes had taken hold. Chinese families, Africans and Eastern Europeans have all being targeted during a campaign that has been particularly intense in the loyalist Village district of south Belfast.
Figures for the first three-quarters of the current financial year do not include the most recent incidents against ethnic minorities. But they do show there were 267 racist incidents, compared with 167 for the same period last year. Homophobic incidents also doubled in the same period.
However, police performance was more impressive in other areas.
Confidence levels in policing public order was at 76 per cent, compared with a target of 75 per cent; domestic burglaries fell by 12 per cent; and car crimes dropped by 18 per cent.