Police have deployed a mobile camera platform outside Vancouver’s Jewish Community Centre, amid a spike in “hate-motivated incidents” in the city as the Israel-Hamas conflict drags on.
Vancouver police Const. Tania Visintin said the use of the Public Safety Trailer is intended as a deterrent, as the city’s Jewish community copes with heightened concerns about safety.
“We deployed this camera as a way to prevent crime and to work with the community on restoring that sense of safety,” she said.
Visintin said police are currently investigating a variety of hate-motivated incidents, including racist graffiti, racial slurs and physical assaults.
Those investigations include two cases of people allegedly being followed and threatened following a rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the arrest of a man on Oct. 13 for allegedly making anti-Semitic comments and gestures at a school.
In October, Mounties in Surrey said they were investigating after a rabbi’s home was pelted with eggs and defaced with Nazi graffiti.
And on Thursday, police in Montreal reported two Jewish schools were shot at overnight.
The Vancouver trailer includes multiple video cameras, but is not linked to police in real time. Police have previously deployed it to deter violent shoplifting, and as a part of criminal investigations.