_Years back, I had a chat with a police officer about petty crime. It seemed to me that if society invested the same resources into finding the perpetrator as it does with murder, we wouldn't have much petty crime.

He told me that to take an armed robber of a convenience store and put him in jail, it takes about $30,000 of taxpayers money. Then there is the cost of jail (this was Canada and 20 years ago).

His answer for petty crime was that eventually these criminals are going to do something that gets them caught. They may not do the time for Crime A to F, but Crime G is where they slip up. There society can get its justice--in a fairly inexpensive way (as far as state resources go).

I still think we need to put more resources into policing for small crimes. But the political order is not there yet.