A senior PSNI officer has said there is frustration among police that damage done to ethnic minority businesses during recent disorder in Belfast was not prevented.
Around 20 officers were injured and 49 arrests have been made, including nine young people, linked to serious disorder in Belfast after an anti-immigration protest in early August.
The unrest and attacks on some businesses owned by people from minority ethnic backgrounds came after misinformation on social media following the murder of three young children in Southport in England.
The PSNI had also been criticised for how they handled the unfolding disorder, with officers accused of watching on as shops and cafes burned.
Appearing before the Executive Office committee, Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said that police commanders were "frustrated that they couldn't do more" to prevent damage to businesses during disorder on the streets of Belfast.
Mr Singleton said he understands concerns around police tactics and that commanders "have some reflection on that themselves about how they think it could be done better".
The PSNI assistant chief said it was not clear how many would attend the gathering at City Hall on 3 August, as it originated from an online post.
"One of the great things about Belfast, and south Belfast in particular, is just how rich a community it is and how diverse it is," he told MLAs.
"Unfortunately, in those circumstances, it meant that when the parade began to break up and move in different directions away from the block into side streets, there were no shortage of premises that they could have attacked and we did see some opportunist action."
Mr Singleton also said that racially motivated hate crime is a "growing issue" in Northern Ireland communities, calling such offences "abhorrent".
The PSNI officer was asked about the erection of anti-Muslim posters on lamp posts in the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey last month.
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Mr Singleton had said previously it was "unacceptable" that the posters had been allowed to stay on the lamp posts for around seven weeks when he would have anticipated a response from the Department for Infrastructure to remove them within "hours" of them going up.
He said police eventually took them down as they had "been up for far too long in the first place, and we understand and appreciate the impact that it was having on the community".
