Police drink-drive levels slammed

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Sixteen police officers in NI are facing disciplinary action after being convicted of drink-driving this year.

Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton said the officers faced misconduct hearings as well as the court penalty.

Mr Leighton, who is in charge of service discipline, said the figures were "totally unacceptable".

SDLP Policing Board member Alex Attwood said in most cases the right penalty was dismissal, but acknowledged there could be exceptional circumstances.

"That's what happens in many other police services in Britain that has not been the case of the PSNI in the north," he said.

"I think it is important and needs to be acknowledged that the chief constable and police leadership are now beginning to adopt that approach."

The DUP's Ian Paisley junior said a "strong and powerful message" must go out that such behaviour was unacceptable.

Independent Policing Board member Brendan Duddy said officers who drove while over the limit should be sacked.

'Professional'

"I sincerely hope they realise the days of knowing the sergeant or the inspector are over," he said.

"These people are in extremely good jobs being highly paid - the least that is expected of them is that they show a real example to everybody else."

Mr Leighton said that the behaviour of all police officers, "both on and off duty, should be of the highest order".

"Integrity is central to the public support of a policing organisation working with all communities to make Northern Ireland a safer place for everyone," he said.

He said the "vast majority" of the thousands of officers in the service "did their jobs in a professional and effective way."

"If we take these steps to deal with this issue we can look the public straight in the eye," he said.

Mr Leighton said police needed to ensure that the few breaches of integrity were "detected early and dealt with".

"However, sadly there will always be a few, and I stress that there are very few, who fall short of the high standards maintained by the rest of us," he said.