What does robbery really cost? An exploratory study into calculating costs and ‘hidden costs’ of policing opioid-related robbery offences

Abstract

Recent attention on the opioid crisis has almost exclusively focused on this issue as a public health concern. Although we do not dispute this approach, we recognize that the opioid crisis in Canada has also generated significant policing costs—particularly in the form of robberies of pharmacies and other businesses. Much of this cost, we argue, remains unknown and/or hidden from public discussion. In this study, we present a more accurate costing of investigating robbery cases, by focusing on a series of opioid-related robberies committed by two individuals in London, Ontario. To calculate the costs, we sought to identify some of the hidden factors not commonly accounted for. Our results indicate that the cost of investigating a robbery case—from initial call to closing of the case—is comparable with previous estimates. However, as opioid-related pharmacies occur as a series of events, total costs are not insignificant. The results of this study have implications for resource allocation policies and highlight the need for a standard police costing metric and a more nuanced understanding of opioid addiction as a policing issue.