The damage and cleanup from the Stanley Cup riot cost about $4 million. Investigating and prosecuting the rioters has cost more than $13 million, so far. Photograph by: NICK PROCAYLO, PNG

VANCOUVER -- Four years after the 2011 Vancouver Stanley Cup riot, we must ask whether the legal system’s response was worth the $13.5 million poured into police and prosecution pockets so far?

That’s three times the roughly $4-million bill for the riot damage — and we still don’t know what judicial, other legal resources and correctional costs total.

Asked for a breakdown of Crown expenses last week, spokesman Gordon Comer could provide only the yearly amounts — $531,966 in 2011/12, $1,305,573 in 2012/13, $1,446,622 in 2013/14 and $1,163,040 in 2014/15.

So far, 285 of 300 people pleaded guilty, seven were convicted after a trial, one was acquitted, four received stays of proceedings, two are awaiting a verdict and a warrant remains outstanding against a woman who returned to Australia.

“There are 11 people awaiting sentencing,” Comer said.

Given the flood of guilty pleas, that works out to a staggering average of $15,000 apiece for prosecutions, the vast majority of which involved a guilty plea.To be fair, charges were not approved against 66 others, so somebody had to review a police file and say, yeah or nay.

But still — that’s an incredibly high average given the numbers and that Crown costs are still accruing.

For instance, a decision against two people will be announced in September. After this long I guess there are still a lot of things to consider.

Thankfully, the end is nigh: The branch has not received any reports from police since last October and Comer told reporters he’s not expecting any more.

Police at last count had charged some $9 million — so each case approved on average has cost us $45,000 for police and prosecutors alone.

“We’ll get you!” vowed gunslinging Premier Christy Clark — but did she have to hand over a blank cheque for the pursuit and punishment of those evildoers?

Four years after the June 15 night that lives in infamy, I think we’ve witnessed a lot of public-sector looting: The savaging of downtown used as cover for a multi-jurisdictional raid on tax coffers.

The other court costs, along with the processing, housing and handling fees for the guilty, are probably equally staggering.

Boy, we showed them!

In hindsight, after all that righteous vengeful rhetoric, I believe we got darn little satisfaction for the price-tag — the cleanup bill multiplied several times over.

The B.C. government backed away from its commitment to televise the trials so most people never got to see the proceedings before those expensive provincial court judges.

As a community we were denied the ability to conduct a timely conversation about accountability because the true costs weren’t and still aren’t available.

Besides, now we’ve got a new police chief and a new attorney general.

The riot was also a damn persuasive argument for a regional police force, yet such a beast is nowhere to be seen nor has that debate materialized in any meaningful way.

It’s likely, I predicted in 2011, that even with the best of luck, riot cases would not be handled until the angry residue of the bittersweet Stanley Cup run was an old memory — long after even the 2012 playoffs ended.

Well, here we are at the end of the 2015 series and we are still dealing with them.

I didn’t think it would take this long nor that we would still be waiting for someone to tally the final bill for our hang-’em-all-high reaction that failed to produce timely efficient justice.

Still, lo these many years, our approach apparently has kept the families of police, prosecutors and other legal system stakeholders warm.

imulgrew@vancouversun.com

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