The cost of investigating the hundreds of crimes committed during Vancouver's Stanley Cup riot will reach an estimated $2 million by the end of June, according to police.

Insp. Les Yeo on the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team announced the figure during a police board meeting Wednesday, adding that the massive probe would be scaled back this summer.

"We are certainly going to be ramping this down," Yeo said. "I expect to have well over 300 reports to Crown counsel by this summer, but there will be follow-up after that."

$497,000 of the budget went into a permanent, state-of-the-art forensic lab, while the remaining $1.55 million was incurred through incremental costs and overtime pay.

Team members' regular salaries and in-kind costs raked up a further $7 million during the course of the investigation.

"That is the cost that we would have had anyway. Those are the costs of our investigators, our cars that we have, our cell phones, everything that we would have been using to investigate any other crime that occurred," Yeo said.

Police have recovered $1.03 million in costs from the provincial government and $31,000 from the Vancouver Police Foundation, he added.

The lawless chaos of June 15, 2011 caused approximately $3 million in damage and losses to individual victims, businesses and various government agencies, not to mention what Yeo describes as ongoing violence to the city's reputation.

"We all saw it go international around the world, and we still see it to this day. When something happens, those [riot] images are put on the TV screens and in the media," he said.

Probing the melee presented unique challenges for police, with an estimated 150,000 people crowding the streets and many suspects wearing identical jerseys or similar colours. Investigators have so far identified 299 criminal acts that took place that night, many of which were committed by dozens or even hundreds of people simultaneously. Among the list are 43 assaults and acts of vandalism against 83 businesses.

The IRIT has so far recommended 508 charges against 175 rioters, and prosecutors have approved 225 charge against 85 of them. Yeo said investigators are currently prepping another 100 charge recommendations.

Since it was formed, the team has been comprised of between 50 and 70 members from eight different Lower Mainland police departments. Yeo described the effort as "without a doubt the largest investigation of its type in Canadian history."

It's unclear how many officers will continue on after June.