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 normal penalties imposed by courts.

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

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.

Your finger is obviously more on the pulse than mine.

Now where is that delete key.

Some say "police are human like any one else", but to be honest I think they should be setting an example. I certainly would feel ridiculous doing something that I've given someone else a fine for / nicked them for. Hypocritical and wrong in my opinion!!