Canada Day celebrations are underway in Victoria and the city’s police department is busy working on keeping people safe during the largest community event of the year.
“We have additional members on duty. Canada Day is our largest community event that we have in the city of Victoria, so again we’re well prepared,” acting chief Del Manak said.
VicPD says they’re encouraging people to come downtown and enjoy the festivities, but are reminding everyone that alcohol is prohibited in public spaces, including on buses.
“We’ve got additional cameras that we’re deploying specifically for Canada Day. We’re going to have them in operation for a specific period of time and usually they’re in areas where we know large crowds gather and it may be problematic,” Manak told CTV News.
According to the acting chief, this allows the police department to re-deploy officers based on what they’re seeing.
“At times in the past we’ve actually used cameras to direct resources in, such as first responders and ambulances into locations where somebody is in need of medical attention,” Manak added.
Police officials say they are working with BC Transit on a strategy to get large crowds out of downtown once the fireworks are over around 10:30 p.m.
Victoria police will be taking non-emergency calls for service on Twitter and Facebook, simply use #vicpdhelps.
