Much still has to be done before Nicola Sturgeon realises her dream of making Scotland the most enlightened and socially just country on the planet. In normal circumstances, this would be no easy task but it’s rendered more difficult by the fact that Scotland currently possesses a police force not fit for a banana republic.

For those who have observed the diminishing of Scotland’s police force from a world-renowned beacon of brusque efficiency to its current status as a national pantomime act the last few years have been painful. Nothing, though, which had previously occurred in the shambolic reign of Stephen House, chief constable of Police Scotland, matched the tragic incompetence of his force’s performance in July.

Last week, the funeral took place of Lamara Bell, the young mother of two who lay undiscovered for three days while seriously injured next to her dead boyfriend in their car after police failed to respond to a report of a motorway crash. Lamara and her partner, John Yuill, 28, had been reported missing by friends after they were last seen early on 5 July. A few hours later, a call was made to police reporting that the couple’s car had left the road on the M9 near Bannockburn. It emerged that the initial report was not entered into the police system and so the usual independent investigation is now underway. Like all other police investigations though, it’s not really independent because it will be conducted by the police themselves.

Regrettably, the result of this “independent” investigation has already been compromised by House who, in a desperately inappropriate attempt to hold on to his job, immediately blamed a police systems operator for not processing the fateful call. By attempting to apportion blame so quickly after the preventable death of two young people, he displayed the crass lack of judgment and arrogance that have been the defining characteristics of his reign.

We have come to expect this from an individual for whom the normal rules of accountability in high public office do not seem to apply. We expect better from his boss, Scotland’s justice minister, Michael Matheson, who is already exhibiting signs of a failure to control the police chief that eventually did for his predecessor, Kenny MacAskill. Matheson, unforgivably, also went down the route of making a scapegoat of a nameless and hapless junior employee before the “independent”’ investigation was even underway. There’s a reason why the word “justice” is included in your ministerial title, Michael.

Despite the usual claims from Police Scotland sources that the tragedy was merely an isolated blip in an otherwise well-oiled machine, reports began to emerge from the police call centre at Bilston Glen, which took the original message about the M9 crash, about the chaotic running of it, low staff morale and a disturbingly high-pressure environment. This was later confirmed by the revelation that absenteeism rates were running at 10%. When it was later revealed that a police officer had left a message on the mobile phone of Lamara Bell 10 days after her death it seemed that what little confidence remained in Police Scotland as an effective organisation was evaporating. Yet still House clings to his job, despite having given notice that he will be stepping down voluntarily late next year.

Even if Police Scotland were an efficiently run entity enjoying widespread public support, such a cocktail of error, denial and managerial incompetence would have placed the chief constable’s future in jeopardy. This, though, is a dysfunctional organisation controlled by a man who is running it like his own private army. Last week, United Nations human rights advisers said that Police Scotland’s enthusiastic deployment of stop-and-search powers was in danger of breaching international law.

Under House, Scottish police seem to have adopted a “scotched earth” approach to apprehending innocent members of the public without any suspicion of a crime. Eighty-three children under the age of 11 were stopped and searched in six months last year without any proof of a crime. This figure dwarfed all other comparable figures anywhere in the UK.

The National Union of Journalists has also called on Police Scotland to confirm or deny that it has been deploying illegal surveillance devices on at least two journalists in a bid to discover the identity of sources. Paul Hutcheon, the investigations editor of the Sunday Herald and a journalist who has a record of exposing police malpractice over several years, has also requested sight of all documentation currently held on him by Police Scotland.

The haste with which the culture and attitudes of the police in Scotland have altered under the chief constable’s tenure is staggering. Not long ago the police in Scotland were regarded as a genial but no-nonsense outfit deploying gruff common sense to keep our communities safe. Now it seems that the government and the police regard Scotland as an unstable rogue state constantly on the verge of violent upheaval. House’s introduction of armed police in daylight among ordinary people going about the business of their day was further proof that Scotland has a chief constable who thinks he’s Wyatt Earp.

It was, though, the death in police custody of Sheku Bayoh following an incident in Kirkcaldy that has provided a sinister undertone to issues surrounding the culture and attitudes of our national police force. The 31-year-old father of two had no previous history of violence yet his family were subjected to an astonishing volley of criticism from a solicitor representing the Scottish Police Federation when a period of silence would have been more appropriate. The family of Mr Bayoh have since made their own investigations and claim that several different versions of the incident were given by the police; that their 5ft 10ins, 12st 10lb son was held down by five police officers including one weighing in at 25st and 6ft 4ins tall. He was not carrying a weapon as police later claimed and nor was there any question of a threat to national security as had also been suggested.

A full judicial inquiry into the customs and practices of Police Scotland is the necessary second step towards restoring some confidence and trust among the public for this dysfunctional force that has become a law unto itself. The first step must be the immediate and long overdue resignation of Stephen House.