The Montreal police force has created a new unit to investigate racism and hate crimes.

The decision comes in response to long-standing complaints from cultural minorities that say they're often ignored.

Police and anti-racism groups say they witness an average of 70 hate-related incidents per year in Montreal.

“It could be Muslims, it could be black people and to a certain extent the LGBT community and of course the Jewish community is always vulnerable to anti-Semitics,” said Fo Niemi, director of the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations.

That could be the tip of the iceberg, since only one in ten incidents is said to be reported.

Many racist incidents don't always qualify as a crime, said Niemi.

“Just insulting or calling someone names is not necessarily a hate crime, but when you call names and follow it with a death threat or you follow it with harassment, then it's not only an incident, but it will be a hate-motivated crime or hate crime,” he said.

The Montreal police force is responding to the problem by creating a new unit that will specifically investigate incidents with hateful overtones.

While they can't always lead to criminal charges, police say it will provide them with better prevention tools.

“For the prevention part, we put in place that unit to just have the good picture regarding the hate incidents,” said Philippe Pichet, director of the Montreal police.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said this unit will assist his goal is to ensure minorities aren't left to fend for themselves when they're targeted.

“I think it's important that we not only send a strong message that we don't to be there in reaction to an event.  We want to prevent it,” he said.

Moise Moghrabi of Jewish groupB’nai Brith said this new unit solves a long-standing problem in the Jewish community when denouncing anti-Semitic incidents to police.

“You call them for an incident and they say, ‘Where's the crime?’ so their hands were tied,” he said. “So now at least they have a department that’s specific jobs is to document incidences, so they will intervene.”

Three full-time staffers will be responsible for the unit, and the city says it will provide more resources if need be.