New volunteers are being trained to bolster the Castro Community on Patrol program in San Francisco.
More volunteers are being counted on to look out for trouble before it strikes.
"Our main focus is looking for assaults or some type of crime that would crop up," said Gregory Carey with the Castro Community on Patrol.
The community started organized patrol in 2006 after a series of sexual assaults in the Castro neighborhood. Nearly a decade later the trainings and weekend patrols continue due to recent incidents where people in the LGBT community were targets of crime.
"It's probably always going to happen, but we want to make it less comfortable for people," Carey said.
During San Francisco's Pride event in June, a group of men shouting homophobic slurs at a couple beat the two women near the Civic Center celebration.
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In another reported incident during Pride weekend, a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and her husband were attacked as they collected donations at the Pink Saturday party.
"I don't hear about people going to Chinese New Year to beat up Asians," Carey said. "Maybe it happens. If it does it is just as unacceptable as what happened here, which is people coming to a gay event to target LGBT people."
