Racial abuse of takeaway workers by drunken revellers has contributed to an escalation of hate crime and incidents in Fife.
Reported cases related to factors including race, religion, sexual orientation or disability rose by 28% to 442 last year, up from 344 the year before.
The massive increase was only partly due to a greater willingness to report incidents, said Fife Community Safety Partnership.
Almost a quarter of the recorded incidents were in Kirkcaldy, which Police Scotland said was due to its night-time economy, with many victims being staff in restaurants and takeaways.
Most cases were of verbal abuse with two-thirds of police charges for threatening behaviour and acting in a racially aggravated manner but 12 were assaults.
One in 10 police charges related to online crimes by email, social media and on websites. The upturn in hate incidents came in the face of a significant reduction in crime overall in the region.
FRAE Fife which promotes racial harmony called for an investigation. Spokesman Naeem Khalid said: “The increase in hate reporting is concerning and it may be partly explained by increased understanding of the reporting system; however, further investigation needs to be conducted.
“Agencies should be working together on intervention initiatives to prevent these hate incidents happening in the first place.”
He also questioned how many perpetrators were successfully prosecuted and said publication of the number could act as a deterrent.
Police Scotland Fife Division Chief Superintendent Garry McEwan said: “A lot of these crimes are in takeaways and late at night. Alcohol is an issue.
“We have been working hard with restaurants and takeaway establishments to raise awareness and increase reporting.
“We take hate crime extremely seriously and my officers will do all they can to detect hate crimes. We have a detection rate of 93% for hate crime and are striving for 100%.”
Fife Community Safety Partnership policy manager Tim Kendrick said: “The 28% increase between the two years is of concern. While we recognise that will be in part due to the efforts of Police Scotland and Fife Council education and children’s service to encourage people to report incidents, it is still concerning that there are so many hate incidents in Fife.”
Some 271 people were referred to Victim Support Fife.
Mr Kendrick said that a lot of work was being done with schools to encourage pupils to report abuse.
He said the fact that 30% of the reports were from organisations other than the police showed that hate incidents were being treated seriously.
He added: “We have robust systems in place in Fife for collating information about hate incidents which aren’t necessarily reported to police for various reasons.
“It is important we have as full as picture as possible of the problem in Fife so that partners can work together and nip problems in the bud and provide support to victims as necessary.
“We are making progress in Fife in encouraging partner agencies to take this issue seriously and encourage people to report incidents, whatever the nature.
“If someone’s perception is something has happened because of their protected characteristic, they will be taken seriously.”
Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Claire Baker said the figures raise questions in need of urgent answers. “It is vital that we get a full picture of the problem in Fife,” she said.
“Third-party reporting is helping to make reporting easier for the victim and this is to be welcomed but reporting is only half the battle. We must also ensure that we have a strong focus on preventing such incidents taking place in the first place.”
cpeebles@thecourier.co.uk