Calgary police say they're facing new challenges as hate crimes and extremism "flare up" across North America.

One is how to monitor extremist groups as they move recruitment from public protests into private, online spaces.

"In 2018, police saw a big decrease in public protests," said Const. Craig Collins, the Calgary police's hate crime coordinator, during a presentation to the police commission on Tuesday.

"[They're] moving away from the actual physical protest, because it doesn't achieve a whole lot, and we're now looking at [social] media and these high-quality propaganda videos. That's, I think, some of the new challenges we're going to face, are capturing our children that are getting involved in that propaganda and those new sites that can really draw you in."

Read more: CBC News (Canada)