Lighters may not sound like a police issue, but Vancouver police are getting a growing number of calls about lighters that look a lot like guns.
VPD Deputy Chief Howard Chow brought the issue up at last week's police board meeting, calling it an "emerging issue."
"This is a daily issue, daily problem for us," he explained.
Some lighters look similar to different handguns and can be mistaken for real guns. That's been leading to people calling 911 to report a person out in public with a restricted firearm.
"When someone calls 911, our officers have no way of knowing if a gun is real or imitation, so we treat every report as real until we can know otherwise," Sgt. Steve Addison tells V.I.A.
In the fall of 2024, the Victoria Police Department brought up the same issue.
These calls can result in a large police presence showing up. Chow brought up two incidents that occurred over the Jan. 18-19 weekend. One was on a bus, and resulted in 15 police officers from the VPD and Metro Vancouver Transit Police being wrapped up for an hour.
How the lighters cause a "huge drain on resources"
The other resulted in 24 officers and lasted four hours after an individual was reported with two guns.
Those aren't isolated incidents.
"We’ve had incidents that have tied up more than a dozen officers for hours, only to find out that the reported gun was actually a lighter," says Addison.
The incidents impact public safety as officers are diverted to the gun reports.
"This is becoming a huge, significant problem," Chow said, explaining that it's a drain on police resources to respond to these types of calls, calling it a "huge drain on resources."
No bylaw about the lighters yet
Chow suggested the city might want to consider a bylaw akin to the bear spray bylaw of 2024.
Addison says for now the police are watching the trend and recommending people "think twice before purchasing, carrying, or displaying anything that looks like a gun."
The City of Vancouver states there aren't any bylaws regarding imitation gun lights, but it does have one for banning the sale of continuous flame lighters, which may include some imitation gun lighters.
