MORE than 1,000 serving police officers have criminal records, new figures show today.

MORE than 1,000 serving police officers have criminal records, new figures show today.

The 1,063 officers were convicted for a range of offences including 59 for assault, three for burglary and 93 for dishonesty, according to statistics from 41 of 52 forces.

A further 210 officers had resigned or been dismissed from their posts since 2004 because of their criminal convictions.

The Liberal Democrats, who requested the data under the Freedom of Information Act, said police chiefs should "get tough on bad apples" within their forces.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said officers convicted of crimes would not automatically lose their jobs.

Suffolk Constabulary was not able to respond to the Freedom of Information request as the information is not held in an easily retrievable manner.