An independent review board has been established to deal with complaints made bout police officers by members of the public.

This was revealed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Emrick Seymour yesterday as he highlighted the nearly 200 complaints made against officers in 2017.

“To ensure the credibility and integrity of the process an internal review board which is an independent body has been initiated and charged with the responsibility for the oversight of all police investigations.

“It simply means not withstanding the complaints made to the Complaints Unit, the process of investigation of those complaints, the review board has the overall responsibility and charge to call in any one of those complaints to ensure that the due process was followed.

“The police complaints unit received 197 complaints in 2017. These were complaints by members of the public.

“A five per cent decrease from the previous year and from the amount reported 112 or 57 per cent of these investigations has been investigated and completed,”

Last year saw several highly publicized social media videos with police officers acting contrary to the code of conduct for the force.

Most notably, two police officers who were demoted after they were identified in a profanity-laced video that went viral, where they were seen drinking alcohol in a police vehicle.

A brief statement from the police said that disciplinary action against the unidentified officers followed an investigation into the video.

The statement said that Commissioner at that time, Ellison Greenslade, demoted the corporal to the rank of constable and that the other officer, a constable was “reduced in seniority,” with both actions taking effect from August 22.

In the video, apparently shot by the driver, one of the police officers was seen drinking, while in the passenger seat, another officer was drinking and playing music. Both were in uniform.

When a female dispatch officer spoke to the officers via radio, the driver told his colleague “tell them what we doing,” to which the colleague replied using expletive language “getting drunk”.