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Background checks of all police officers and staff have found more than 400 links to previously undisclosed misconduct, including crime.

Nine new criminal investigations have begun following the checks and 88 officers will be formally disciplined.

Criminal allegations to emerge include theft, fraud, drugs and three sexual offences.

Police chiefs began checking records after the conviction, in January 2023, of PC David Carrick for 49 offences.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said at the time he wanted forces to "root out anybody who shouldn't be serving".

Weeks later, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley complained he did not have the power to sack "hundreds of people who shouldn't be here".

The records of 307,000 officers, staff and volunteers have now been checked against the six billion entries on the Police National Database (PND).

Overall, 267 officers and staff will be subject to "management intervention" - including one chief officer - or have their levels of vetting reviewed.

At a news conference before publication, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said they could not provide any more details about individual officers involved.

The PND was set up in 2011, to share intelligence between forces, following an inquiry into the 2003 killings of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, in Soham, Cambridgeshire.

'Different decisions'

Chief Constable Serena Kennedy, who led the NPCC review, said: "Those people that we have identified who are now subject to criminal investigation, and also the 88 that are being subject to disciplinary investigation, absolutely should not be in policing. And I think it's really positive that we have to undertake this piece of work.

"It's certainly the largest piece of integrity screening that policing has undertaken. And it's about reassuring our communities that we are going to root these people out because they don't have a place in policing.

"Perhaps under the new lens, we might make new decisions or different decisions."

Policing leaders are now talking to the Home Office about using an automated screening process in the future.