Mr. Alan Todd:

There have been a number of incidents that have occurred in different places at different times for different reasons. It tends to be new communities arriving in an area and an adverse reaction from some of the local community. Sometimes that plays out in hate incidents and hate crimes, properties being attacked and people being harassed, abused and insulted. That pops up on a number of different fronts. My colleague, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, is a UK leader on hate crime. We think the PSNI is proficient at that but the solutions lie locally. The strategies and plans can be in place and support can be brought, but it has to be done through local policing solutions. It is transient in nature. There are different communities in different places at different times because of employment factors and factories and food production. With freedom of movement, people move to places where there are opportunities. As is the case in the South, what once were new communities are now mainstream and those people are starting to put down roots as second or third generations in the schools. There are schools in Northern Ireland that would be closed but for the kids from new communities.

That is reflected in the police service. It is an almost daily occurrence where someone in the service is looking for a police officer who can speak one of a number of languages to assist an investigation or inquiry or assist the public. Problems do not exist between the resident community, the home community and new community. Tensions can be brought from off these shores to these shores with family disputes or ethnic disputes that have their roots in other parts of Europe. Those tensions and stresses do not disappear because these people are in a new environment.