Last week, we had very unhappy reasons to warn this country of the deadly game of corruption that threatens to render our police force inoperable. But just when we thought it could get no worse, it did.

We spoke in this space last Tuesday about the commandeering of police resources by unscrupulous individuals to be used against certain Jamaicans, at the behest of people who do not wish them well. This was in the case of a false tip allegedly sent from police narcotics to The Bahamas that contraband was on a Sandals plane, clearly to cause embarrassment.

This development by itself constitutes a monumental assault on the integrity of the police force, with the potential to take away all the confidence that citizens should bestow on it and consequently the support it should get in the fight against crime.

We also spoke about the discovery of a massive arms cache that was traced to the Police Armoury and Stores, suggesting that guns and ammunition paid for or otherwise acquired by the State, were finding their way into illegal hands.

This week, the picture got messier. Anti-Corruption Branch Police reported Tuesday that a 9mm Beretta pistol handed over to the Police Armoury and Stores from an illegal possession of firearm case in 2003 had been recovered from the streets.

It has to be clear now to even the blind that the armoury has been the source of gun-running, God knows for how long. We find it hard to believe that a single individual could be responsible. Men have corrupted the police force to the very core, and the question now has to be whether the Jamaica Constabulary Force can be reformed sufficiently to provide Jamaica the level of security and sophistication needed in these modern times.

Our support for Acting Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington can in no wise be questioned. However, we must urge him to eschew tardiness and move with every dispatch to see to the completion of the audit and investigations into the operations at the police armoury.

We believe that for Mr Ellington it is more than a job that he is pursuing, and he must know that his tenure, should he be confirmed in the post, will not enjoy one iota more of success than his predecessors, even if he gave it his every waking hour, without deep and fundamental change.

We believe that Prime Minister Bruce Golding and National Security Minister Dwight Nelson can leave a lasting legacy from this administration if they moved forthwith to create the opportunity for the Jamaican populace, local and overseas, to engage with their ideas and suggestions, in a far-reaching review of the JCF.

It is a difficult prospect to redo a police force. But we seem to be at the point where no less is necessary. It is an exercise that as a nation we must carry out together. There is no foreseeable time when we will not need a police force.

The audit of the Police Armoury and Stores ordered by Mr Ellington could be the start of a complete audit of the force. The results should then be used as the basis for the national discourse on the kind of police force that Jamaica needs.

Tempus fugit.