North Bay Police Chief Scott Tod is concerned about the use of imitation hand guns being used in the community.

He told Bay Today the most dangerous thing to our community would be to have a police officer discharge a firearm and injure someone and perhaps kill someone who is using an imitation firearm.

“It’s a real danger that the police see. The criminals should recognize this too. By taking an imitation firearm and intimidating  someone with it only raises the level of violence in our communities,” Tod says.

He says the imitation gun is being used to threaten or intimidate someone and it’s especially more common in the drug trade.

He told BayToday it’s hard to distinguish between a fake gun and a real one

“We’ve seen a number of imitation firearms in the community by the people that are selling drugs. That being the traffickers who are selling narcotics. They are using it as a threat of intimidation or extortion as an ability to collect the money that’s owed to them,” he says.

He made his comments at a community forum last week at Nipissing University.

(photo by station staff)

Filed under: imitation guns, scott tod