Race crime figures in Northern Ireland are “escalating out of all proportion”, the chief constable has said.

Jon Boutcher urged that the issue be highlighted as he said the number of crimes motivated by race was at the highest 12-month level since records began in 2004/05.

He also said June saw the highest single month of racial incidents, after a stabbing attack in north Belfast.

The stabbing, dramatic footage of which circulated on social media, sparked significant rioting in areas of Northern Ireland.

According to police figures there were 2,561 race hate incidents recorded between July 2025 and July 2026, up from 2,058 between July 2024 and July 2025.

There were also 1,615 race hate crimes recorded by police between July 2025 and July 2026, up from 1,347 between July 2024 and July 2025.

Northern Ireland Policing Board member Peter Osborne raised those figures with concern to Mr Boutcher during a meeting of the board on Thursday, describing the statistics as getting “worse and worse and worse”.

He highlighted the difference in the net increases for different motivations for crime, including sexual orientation, sectarian and disability, as making it “even more stark”.

“The net increase of race hate incidents has been 503 of an increase. The net increase for all others put together has been 69,” he said.

“When you look at the net increase of race hate crimes in the last year, it is 268 of an increase. When you look at all of the others put together, the net increase is two.

“I think those are stark statistics.”

Mr Boutcher said the levels of race hate crime “should cause all of us significant concern”.

“Hate has been a challenge in society because of what we see in geopolitics in the last few years around challenges, around criticisms for migration, immigration, some challenges that have legitimate political basis for discussion,” he said.

“But in June of this year, when we saw the terrible attack against Stephen Ogilvie, I’m pretty sure that’s the highest single month we had racial incidents.”

He went on to say that people who come to Northern Ireland to start businesses, create jobs, work in public services and “overwhelmingly provide positively” now “live in abject fear”.

“You speak about how they’re treated around their social behaviour, the nuisance crimes they face with regards to racism that they have to endure,” he said.

“It’s a societal stain that we’ve got here … we’ve had conversations of moving from sectarianism to racism.

“We have got to put our shoulder against this wheel to make sure that this is not tolerated, and the criminal justice route with aggravated elements around offending and deterrence of the courts, is the best way through dealing with this.”

He added: “We can’t accept the unacceptable … this is a societal issue, and we have got to do everything we can to show absolute zero tolerance to it.

“We are seeing success in other areas of hate crime with regards to the trends but this is becoming one of our biggest challenges.

“I have no answer for you today, but we’ve got to highlight it.

“We’ve got to educate people, and we’ve got to shine a light on it and we’ve got to make sure that people’s behaviours, where they are abhorrent or wrong, are called out by society.”