Undercover NYPD officers will be redeployed to help handle the recent surge of anti-Asian hate crimes across the city, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Tuesday. 

Shea acknowledged during an NY1 appearance that anti-Asian attacks have “certainly ratcheted up since last year.” He said the department is working to step up patrols, the New York Post reports. 

“When you look at different sections of New York City, whether it’s in Chinatown, whether it’s here in Lower Manhattan, whether it’s in Flushing or parts of Brooklyn, you’re going to see uniformed, as well as some people that may surprise you,” Shea said.

“And we’ll have more to say on that when we redeploy some of our undercover officers, if you will, to be out there and to make sure that, you know, people aren’t being unfairly targeted, whether in the transit system or above ground.”