Around £1.1m was spent on PSNI officer overtime during the four days of rioting in Ardoyne over the Twelfth of July, the Chief Constable has revealed.
We’re sorry. This video is unavailable from your location.
Matt Baggott released the figures during a meeting of the Policing Board on Thursday afternoon.
He said the cost was equivalent to what would have spent on funding a team of eight officers to patrol the Belfast estate for three years.
"From Sunday July 11 to the Wednesday, in terms of overtime, the cost was £1.1m," Mr Baggott said.
"Just to give that perspective, that is the equivalent of a fully-resourced neighbourhood police team that, had it been deployed into Ardoyne, would have been there for three years.
"It would have paid for a fully-resourced team of eight officers.
"We can't do that now because unfortunately we've have to put significant numbers of people before the courts."
Violence flared in Ardoyne over a period of four days around the Twelfth. More than 80 officers were injured during clashes with rioters.
Over 40 people have so far been charged with the trouble across Belfast over the same period.
Mr Baggott said the money saved on policing the riots would have been spent to improve the lives of people in Ardoyne.
"I said about a year ago that what we didn't spend on policing the disturbances I would invest straight back into those neighbourhoods," Mr Baggott continued.
"Those eight would undoubtedly have improved the lives of people in that estate dramatically, led to young people walking about in safety and getting better qualifications.
"Well, that area will now no longer get those officers over the three years that it would have got if we hadn't had to spend £1.1m on police overtime."
© UTV News