The Corruption and Crime Commission\xE2€[TM]s review of the Josh Warneke case is as damning as it should be worrying for all West Australians \xE2€" none more so than Police Commissioner Karl O\xE2€[TM]Callaghan.
What began as an inquiry into the bungled handling of a single case has now raised serious questions about the integrity of all police investigations and the general competence of the officers who carry them out.
It is a point CCC Commissioner John McKechnie hammered home in the final paragraph of his 52-page report that said: \xE2€oeThe errors of individual officers reflect a deeper malaise and systemic weakness which permeates criminal investigations in this State.\xE2€
Equally worrying is that the problems identified in the Warneke case appear to be nothing new.
The murder of schoolgirl Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu in 2006 highlighted major issues with police interviews that also resulted in a court ruling those interviews inadmissible.
Like the Warneke case, the bungle resulted in Sofia\xE2€[TM]s killer Dante Arthurs pleading guilty to a lesser charge and getting a lighter sentence as a result.
The outcry prompted Mr O\xE2€[TM]Callaghan to promise a major overhaul of detective training and policies.
What followed was Project Anticus, which the 2009 police annual report said had been \xE2€oeimplemented to improve and ensure quality standardised detective practices across the agency\xE2€.
But as Commissioner McKechnie was at pains to point out in the Warneke report, not much seems to have changed since Sofia\xE2€[TM]s murder.
As a former Supreme Court judge, Commissioner McKechnie has seen first-hand what happens when police get it wrong \xE2€" he was the judge who jailed Arthurs in 2007.
He was also less than impressed with the achievements of Project Anticus when confronted with problems in another murder trial in 2009.
At the time, he described claims that police had improved as \xE2€oelittle more than public relations spin\xE2€.
Mr O\xE2€[TM]Callaghan is yet to respond to the latest revelations arising from the Warneke case, citing the continuing internal investigation as the reason for his silence.
Police Minister Liza Harvey expressed her concerns yesterday but she has also not yet outlined how she believes the problems plaguing police can be fixed.
But Mrs Harvey and Mr O\xE2€[TM]Callaghan can be assured that it will take more than \xE2€oepublic relations spin\xE2€ this time around to convince a sceptical public that they should have confidence in those who are paid to protect us.
Commissioner McKechnie has seen what happens when police get it wrong.