3 police services in Ontario held funerals for officers recently. Only 1 will say how much it cost

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Const. Grzegorz Pierzchala was shot and killed on Dec. 27, 2022 in Haldimand County, some 45 kilometres southwest of Hamilton.

South Simcoe Police Service Const. Morgan Russell and Const. Devon Northrup died after responding to a call about a disturbance on Oct. 11, 2022 in Innisfil, Ont.

A month before, Toronto Police Service Const. Andrew Hong died on Sept. 12 in what police called an unprovoked "ambush" during his lunch break at a Tim Hortons in Mississauga, Ont.

The funeral services for all four brought thousands of people together, including many fellow emergency and frontline workers, to honour and say goodbye to the officers who had died while on the job. 

"Seldom do we fully appreciate the weight of being there for us in our darkest hours. All we can do now is to be there in yours," Ontario Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell said at Pierzchala's funeral in Barrie on Jan. 4.

"The devastating loss comes at any already difficult time. We've never lost so many police officers in this province."

Of the four, the funeral for Pierzchala is the only one with costs that have been made publicly available. Policing experts have differing views over whether those costs should be disclosed. 

Through a Freedom of Information request, CBC Hamilton obtained a breakdown of the money OPP spent on Pierzchala's funeral.

The documents reveal OPP spent $241,179.43 on the funeral.

Of that, $191,792.56 was spent on staffing, overtime and premium pay. The remaining $49,386.87 went toward transportation, arena costs, meals and accommodations.

Toronto and South Simcoe declined to disclose the costs for the funerals they held for their officers. 

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Bill Dickson, OPP spokesperson, said Pierzchala was a "true hero who made the ultimate sacrifice" and said the money for the funeral was not allocated for in the OPP's budget. It's unclear where exactly OPP found the funds used.

Darryl Davies, a criminology professor at Carleton University, said people should know how much the TPS and SSPS funerals cost.

"If there's public money involved, obviously it should be disclosed ... I don't see why any police agency in Ontario would have a problem with that," he said.

• See the breakdown of the costs associated with the Jan. 4 OPP funeral at the bottom of the story.

Scott Blandford, the program co-ordinator of the policing and public safety programs at Wilfrid Laurier University who also spent 30 years policing in London, Ont., said these kinds of costs are a double-edged sword.

He appreciates the demand for transparency but said the funeral costs shouldn't be made public because the information isn't vital.

He said the funeral isn't just about money, it's about a sign of respect for someone who died trying to protect the public. He said the larger funeral also helps the community mourn.

"What is to be gained by releasing that type of figure and then it creates a situation where there's public outcry? What does that do to the family that has just gone through the death ... to now see that person's funeral become a political football?" he said.

"I think it's insensitive ... it continues to victimize that family."

Davies however said people can differentiate between a call for transparency and an understanding for why the funds were needed.

"The public recognize and understand the significance and importance," he said of the funerals.

See the full breakdown of funeral expenses here: