23 January 2013 Last updated at 13:12 ET

Hate crime reporting centres open in North Yorkshire

Nine new centres have opened in North Yorkshire to allow people to report hate crimes.

They will be located in libraries and Citizens' Advice Bureaus in Selby and the surrounding area.

North Yorkshire Police said they hoped the scheme would allow people who were not comfortable with talking to them to report crimes.

The local Community Safety Partnership said that surveys suggested that only a third of hate crimes were reported.

Colin Moreton, of the partnership, said: "Hate crime is much more severe than other types of crime and can have a dramatic effect on people because they are being targeted as a person.

"It can have a severely personal, traumatic effect on victims and can make them reluctant to talk about their experience before it's too late."

According to North Yorkshire Police there were 228 incidents of hate crime across the county last year, a drop from the 290 cases reported in 2011.

The force's assistant chief constable Iain Spittal said: "We're really keen that people living in our communities are feeling safe and free from oppressive behaviour against them.

"We need people to engage with us and let us know what's happening around them."