Some crimes are not being reported to police despite being posted and widely commented upon on social media sites.

Insp Guy Thompson told Deal Town Council: “One of the issues that PCSOs have told me about is the benches in Walmer.

“People on Facebook know about it and it’s been in the local press, but we’ve actually had no reports of damage to us.”

He also said that since Brexit, while there had been an increase of 85 reports in hate crime nationally, there had not been a spike in Deal and Dover.

“This is pleasing,” he said. “There’s been some odd bits in Dover such a graffiti in doorways but they were old incidents which have resurfaced. Our community liaison officer is liaising with community groups and she’s not picking up on it either.”

“People on Facebook know about it and it’s been in the local press, but we’ve actually had no reports of damage to us.” - Insp Guy Thompson

However, Cllr Ben Bano questioned whether hate crimes and lower level occurrences, known as hate incidents, were actually being reported. He told Insp Thompson that he had heard from teachers about incidents where older children had made jibes and been unpleasant to those from ethnic minorities. Insp Thompson said: “We need to know about these incidents and then we can work with the schools and help divert that behaviour.”

Recent crimes reported included an incident where youths had set light to a cone with an aerosol in Deal High Street. Insp Thompson said police knew the three youths responsible and were working with agencies to help them.

Regarding national budget cuts, the force is on track to be £100 million worse off than six years ago by 2019. Despite this they are still recruiting “massively”.

He added: “We need to hire 440 officers and police constables in the next 18 months to two years.”

The authority is investing in firearms officers, cyber crime and vulnerable people.