Just when the police was negotiating meaningful reforms comes disturbing revelations of their recurring venality.
None other than Federal Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief Datuk Seri Shuhaily Zain, in a viral video of a scathing closed-door speech, exposed police officers under his watch of taking bribes and instructions from crime racketeers to, among others, leak information crucial to criminal investigations.
More worrying was Suhaily's allegation that the racketeers also bribed CID commanding officers. The payouts were obviously lucrative: it explains how senior officers and even their subordinates, were able to — as enlightened by Shuhaily — purchase expensive cars and vanity number plates.
What about that police officer caught lugging RM40,000 in cash at a karaoke joint, but after a disciplinary inquiry, was handed a "clean slate"? Incredibly, the police officer who allegedly sneaked a loan shark boss into a police station some weeks back to assault a wayward machai was promoted instead of being censured.
Here is what is ridiculous about Shuhaily's revelations: he placed all 130 CID chiefs nationwide on notice, warning that their impending promotions were frozen until they rein in their crooked subordinates.
However, the reality is disheartening: apparently, some police officers who collude with criminals faced neither disciplinary nor court action, but were instead promoted.
You'd think a high-ranking police officer venting outrage against the force's shenanigans could finally trigger the long-held vow of a clean-up. Hold that thought. It seems that our police force, at least the bent bit, is playing the disappointed public and the conscientious rank and file for fools.
The public is rightly asking how this could have happened after all the hue and cry about purifying the force.
If this is the way the police govern its black sheep, then we'll say it out loud: the force is unrepentant, infested by disbelievers of penitence and integrity at the expense of ethical comrades.
What we divulged today, regrettably, is just the tip of the iceberg. A total overhaul of the police force seems like a herculean effort, with political will lacking.
Even a change to an administration that promised reformation for generations is unable to counter this malevolence.
The full weight of officialdom is also cowed by repeated calls for a Royal Commission of Inquiry or an independent police commission to probe police sordidness. So what are the remaining options?
Perhaps we need our own Elliot Ness or Frank Serpico to step out, armed with incriminating evidence and utmost responsibility to whistleblow on these perfidious conspiracies that befoul mid and top police management.
Yes, we understand the terrible risk to whistleblowers' life and limb if they are outed, but at the rate the corrupt parade with impunity, the options are fast diminishing.
Pray that the red line between police enforcement and organised gangsterism never disappears, although the line could be alarmingly blurring.