16 Officers face Drink Drive Charges

TUESDAY 14/11/2006 17:53:44

Police Face Drink Driving Disciplinary Action

A total of 16 police officers in Northern Ireland are facing disciplinary action after being convicted of drink driving this year.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland officers have been criticised by Deputy Chief Constable Paul Leighton who said they faced misconduct hearings as well as the normal penalties imposed by courts.

"These figures are totally unacceptable. The behaviour of all police officers, both on and off duty, should be of the highest order," he said.

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

There are thousands of officers in the service and the police chief said the vast majority 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 added.

"We need to make sure that the few breaches of integrity are detected early and dealt with."

Up to 60 officers have been convicted of drink driving during the past five years and Mr Leighton, the force`s disciplinary head, has said offenders could lose their jobs.

The figures come weeks ahead of this Christmas`s expected drink driving blitz on motorists.

Nationalist SDLP policing spokesman Alex Attwood said all 16 would be expected to lose their posts.

"The rule should be that people convicted of drink driving and serious criminal matters lose their jobs, that should be the principle and there should only be a very rare exception," he said.

"The problem has been that there has been too much flexibility in relation to police actions after criminal convictions.

"There have been concerns about people not losing their jobs but since April police have become more consistent."

Democratic Unionist spokesman Ian Paisley Jnr said each case needed to be considered individually.

"People expect people to live up to the highest possible standards and that is only right but whenever you look at people on the roads they don`t always lose their jobs and as an employer the police cannot kick them all out," he said.