Our headline yesterday, which posed the question, who’s in charge of the police?, might seem a rather remote concept for most islanders but it is of fundamental importance when it comes to responsibility and holding individuals to account.

While it might be a tribute to the Guernsey way of doing things that it is only in 2011 that the Royal Court has been asked to decide whether the States of Guernsey is liable in law for the wrongful acts or omissions of police and customs officers while doing their jobs, it does leave the island rather behind the times.

More than 50 years ago, chief constables in the UK realised this was so significant an issue that they accepted legal responsibility for the officers under their command so proceedings could be instituted against them as chief constable and this was enshrined in law in the 1964 Police Act.

The former police chief and his legal advisers appeared to acknowledge that development in becoming enjoined in judicial appeal proceedings, but that apparent acceptance of responsibility may well be challenged following a recent, unrelated, judgement by the Royal Court.

Meanwhile, the latest ruling means that a man accused of serious drug crimes, held in custody for nine months and then released just before his trial was to go ahead because the prosecution chose to offer no evidence means he has been waiting since 2000 to determine whether his treatment was fair or not.

Since the case collapsed only after the prosecution was faced with the compulsory disclosure of certain material against the accused, islanders will have their own views.

Nevertheless, someone lost nine months of liberty, claims they were fitted up by the authorities and 11 years later is still unable to pursue a £225,000 compensation claim because of doubts over who takes responsibility for the actions of the law enforcers.

It is clearly an unsatisfactory state of affairs that will be worsened if the new police chief is advised to mount the same defence over the judicial review hearing, which seeks to raise equally serious concerns about the way a search warrant was issued and executed.