Vancouver Canucks fans set a car on fire and riot in the street after watch the Canucks lose to Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. (Carmine Marinelli/QMI AGENCY)

VANCOUVER – The police chief has lashed out against critics, defending the lack of charges laid more than two months after the Stanley Cup riots.

Critics have slammed the Vancouver police, citing the quick response by British police in the London riots.

"Our diligence and thoroughness will ensure that we lay the highest number of charges and obtain the highest number of convictions with the most severe penalties,” said Vancouver police Chief Jim Chu at a press conference Wednesday.

It has been more than two months since rioters ripped apart Vancouver¹s downtown streets following game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

In the initial days following, police laid several charges against a handful of people. None have been laid since, despite hundreds of people being outed on social media sites.

“If you are in favour of speed you are in favour more acquittals and lighter penalties," Chu said, defending the lack of charges.

Meanwhile, British police have already arrested more than 3,000 people after the violence that has engulfed the country since Aug. 6. On Wednesday, cops charged the 1,000th suspect. Two men have received four-year sentences for inciting rioters through social media.

So far, Vancouver police have spotted 259 separate incidents form the June

15 riot, with each case having as many as 300 people involved.

More than forty people have turned themselves in to police, but none of them have been charged yet.

Staff Sgt. Lee Patterson, highlighting his experiences working as an officer in both the U.K. and Vancouver, said the only things the two places have in common are that they “are plagued by the stigma of hosting a riot.” Patterson said England has a strong history of hooliganism and British police have a more “robust” legislative system to deal quickly with rioters.

British Police dispatched 16,000 officers into London armed with riot gear to quell the civil unrest there.

Chu said Vancouver police will soon launch a website dedicated to the riot investigation and updating the public with the number of people identified in the videos of the destruction.

Police also announced more than 1,600 videos from the riots will be analyzed in an Indianapolis lab to ensure no crimes are missed.