Police admit clearance rates on recent crime - down to just 9.3% - are "disappointing" and have vowed to keep making efforts to engage with hard to reach communities.

Talking to the recent public meeting of Ballymena District Policing Partnership, which was held at the Braid Arts Centre, PSNI Area Commander Barbara Gray said the nature of many incidents made them difficult for police to pursue.

She said: "For example, if three cars are scraped by someone walking past them and the owner of one of the cars feels their vehicle was attacked because of their ethnicity, it must be recorded as a race crime."

In her annual report to the DPP she added: "The clearance rate for racist crime is disappointing. Significant efforts have been made to engage with hard to reach communities and an excellent working relationship has continued with Ballymena Inter Ethnic Forum.

"Again, the nature of many of the crimes reported as racist, for example broken windows, do not often provide significant investigative opportunities."

Similarly, Ballymena police want to increase their clearance rates on sectarian crime.

The clearance rate for the past year has increased from 12.1% to 18.3% but Chief Inspector Gray would like it to be higher.

She said: "Although this target has been achieved the clearance rate is still unacceptably low. The nature of some of the sectarian crime reported provides significant challenge in bringing offenders to justice.

"All hate crimes are reviewed by an Inspector following 28 days to ensure all investigative opportunities are being pursued."

The Area Commander added: "Excellent work has been going in the area with our community safety and neighbourhood policing.

"We want people to report sectarian and racist crime and if the numbers of reported crimes are going up then hopefully it reflects confidence in the police."

H District has trained all staff in the Hate Crime Policy Directive. An officer dedicated to hate crime (HIMLO) has developed an information-sharing policy to ensure any victim receives the required support and advice from police. Repeat victimisation is also monitored.

Local police have introduced a number of initiatives in partnership with the Ballymena Inter Ethnic Forum, including the development of a police surgery, which operates on the first Wednesday of every month. Polish and Slovakian advocates attend the surgery with police addressing a number of issues such as domestic violence within the ethnic community.