"How the hell did they manage to get through?"

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The Metropolitan Police vetting system has come under fire after it emerged that convicted sex offenders were among those with criminal convictions still on duty.< /p>

I met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said there were 'sex offender cases' and 'serious violence cases' among the 161 officers convicted of criminal charges - admitting the rules regarding disposal of unfit staff were "crazy".

Susan Hall, chair of the London Assembly's Police and Crime Committee, said the figures "proved" that the current vetting service of Scotland Yard was not "fit for purpose".

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today program if it was ready to accept 161 convicted officers, she said : " No. How the hell did they get through?"

Ms Hall added: "This proves that the verification service is not fit for purpose. They need to set the bar much higher. We need to ensure that the public has confidence in our police force.

The nation's largest police force has moved serious and organized crime and counter-terrorism officers to internal standards to help clean up- right down to its own hand- work.

The Met has admitted that 161 officers have had criminal convictions, including three serving officers who have been convicted of sex offences. 49 other people were convicted for crimes of dishonesty or violence; eight of them committed the offenses while serving as police and continue to serve in the force.

Sir Mark told the Radio 4Today programme: "I think that the current policy is too permissive and leaves too much room for interpretation. There are definitely people when I looked at the list and thought, 'Crikey - that's not true'."

But the commissioner admitted it was 'crazy' that he there isn't enough 'wiggle room' to dismiss the 'hundreds' of people in the force who shouldn't be there - agreeing that regulations need to change for necessary layoffs.

There told the BBC the force is subject to police regulations rather than "normal employment law", adding: "These regulations over time have become byzantine and complex.

Sir Mark said, "People will be shocked. Some of the people on this list of criminal convictions are people that the M...