WEST Devon police are urging anyone witnessing racial abuse to come forward.
Police believe people may be at risk in the borough because of the low racial mix and have launched a drive to combat racism.
Crime reduction officer Sergeant Gary Neeves said a number of incidents had come to their attention, but they were aware it was an area where crimes went unreported.
'If we find people acting on their discrimination or hatred of others by persistently abusing or hassling people who are black or of ethnic minority then they will be prosecuted under the Crime and Disorder Act anti-social behaviour orders,' he said.
'A lot of issues around racism stem from the family and family experience — if a young person is displaying overt racist views then we would question whether or not other family members have the same views.'
He said the police wanted to build up a picture of these individuals so they could act if incidents occurred.
'Unless people feel they can come forward and share information we will not be able to build bridges with black and ethnic minority people in the district,' he said.
'We are concerned about these incidents but I do not think we are suffering any more racist incidents in West Devon than we have over the last 20 years. The hope is that in the future people will feel they can come to the police and other services to discuss their experiences.'
The aim is to get a support mechanism in place through the Community Safety Partnership, which includes representatives from the police, borough council and other bodies.
The partnership approach means that the police no longer have sole responsibility for reducing crime.
A training day has been held for members of the partnership to make them aware of the importance of addressing racial and homophobic crime.
'Reports have identified the West Country as displaying fairly racial views,' added Sgt Neeves. 'Because of the low racial mix many people are living in isolation because of their background. There is no support available.
'We also need to make people more aware of the diverse society we live in. Young people in this area are growing up in a predominantly white environment but when they get to 18 and go to University in places such as London, Birmingham and Manchester they will be joining a multi-racial society.'
Equality has been identified as one of the priority areas for the police nationwide following the inquiry into the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.
Sgt Neeves said he was linking into organisations such as the Racial Equality Council and corresponding with all the schools and agencies such as social services in the area to find out about their experiences of racism and how it was dealt with.
'We want to promote equality and tolerance for all and dignity and respect — there may well be asylum seekers coming to Devon and we have to realise that we have a responsibility to support and assist people in need.
'People who are seeking asylum from places like Kosovo and Bosnia have experienced things hopefully we will never see and we should be there to help them in whatever way we can.'
He said everybody had prejudices whether it was age, sex or colour but it was how we deal with those prejudices that mattered.
Sgt Neeves can be contacted on 0990 777444. The Race Equality Council in Plymouth on 01752 304898.