Police lose track of their guns

Via FOI, a combined six guns were lost by or stolen from VicPD and Saanich PD between 2012 and early 2023, including one of the assault rifles pictured in the preview image. VicPD is losing track of one gun every 2.25 years. Here’s a post with some VicPD gun-losing history.

Saanich PD says it had one handgun stolen in 2014, which it later recovered, and it didn’t lose any guns from 2012 to 2023. VicPD lost (or had stolen, they didn’t say) five guns, including a G36K assault rifle, three shotguns and a training handgun. They couldn’t provide dates.

I had seen an old 2002 story that after a VicPD gun “was found in the possession of a Vancouver gang member,” VicPD said up to 20 of their “retired” revolvers might be missing. They blamed pre-1995 documentation practices and later located some of those guns.

After reading that story, I saw someone had FOI’d lost and stolen firearm stats from the RCMP. I thought replicating that request could be a good way to see what’s been going on with both Saanich PD and VicPD.

It’s hard to say if or how things have improved since 2002. It seems odd, for example, that VicPD couldn’t readily provide dates for its missing guns. And they are definitely still losing track of guns. It’s not 1994 anymore, so that defence doesn’t work.

VicPD likes to use words like 'safety' and 'accountability.' They also spend a lot of money on weapons, and they fail to keep tabs on those same weapons. How do you lose an assault rifle? Ask VicPD, I guess.