Officer overtime for protests and rallies related to Israel-Hamas war straining VPD budget
CTV
Since the latest war between Israel and Hamas broke out, thousands of people have taken to the streets of Vancouver to express solidarity with civilians killed on both sides of the conflict.
Since the latest war between Israel and Hamas broke out, thousands of people have taken to the streets of Vancouver to express solidarity with civilians killed on both sides of the conflict.
At each rally, protest and march, there are dozens of police officers – and most of them have been called in from days off to work overtime.
"Right now, we're going through a period of time where we are calling in a lot of officers from home,” said Vancouver police spokesperson Sgt. Steve Addison.
“We are simply not going to take resources away from another neighbourhood that needs that policing service in order to put them on the front lines of a protest."
Addison said there were a total of nine protests related to the conflict over the weekend, and that hundreds of additional officers were called in to work.
In addition to that, he said there were a number of extremely violent crimes that took place over the weekend, and some of them also required significant resources to deal with.
Those incidents include a ride hail driver slashed with a knife near Trout Lake on Friday evening, a man stabbed in the chest near Broadway and Fraser Street early Sunday morning, a man stabbed in the stomach near Granville and Smithe streets on Sunday afternoon, and a man slashed with a machete near East Pender and Columbia streets early Monday morning.
