The disturbing conclusions of a Superior Court judge, who dismissed a robbery case last month when it was revealed in court that the investigating York Regional police officers had apparently brutalized the accused and then covered it up, once again underscore the urgency of the province’s promised reform of policing in Ontario.

In her decision, Justice Cory Gilmore said police misconduct in the case was too serious to proceed on the charges, because it violated the Charter rights of the accused.

The judge could come to “no other conclusion,” she wrote, than that two experienced York Regional Police officers, Alec Tompras and David Noseworthy, had assaulted Gil Kim after his arrest in August 2012. The details, as alleged by Kim, are shocking. He testified that Noseworthy punched, kicked and throttled him after he invoked his right to remain silent.

Shocking, too, is what Gilmore concluded happened after the alleged assault. The officers then attempted to “cover it up” by washing blood off the suspect’s shirt and hiding his injuries from the video camera during his interview, the judge wrote.

Rightly, York Regional Police Chief Eric Jolliffe has taken swift action, ordering an investigation by Peel Regional Police into the case. If wrongdoing is confirmed, consequences for the detectives could range from a loss of working hours to a demotion to termination and quite possibly criminal charges.

However, Jolliffe has said he will not make the findings of the investigation public unless charges are laid. Given the severity of the allegations and the troubling questions raised by the court, he should rethink that position. Rebuilding the public trust will require transparency.

That’s a useful reminder for Ontario, too, as it seeks to improve police oversight after a series of recent high-profile cases of alleged assaults and cover-ups by police in the province.

Queen’s Park could start by implementing two recommendations made by Justice Michael Tulloch in a far-reaching report on police reform released this spring.

First, the province should create a civilian body to investigate police misconduct cases. After all, many critics understandably worry that police investigating police have a tendency to protect their own.

Tulloch also wisely recommended a regulatory college be established by the province to oversee training and uphold ethical standards for police, as similar bodies do for law, medicine and many other professions.

“Modern policing,” Tulloch wrote in his report, “is founded on public trust.” Cases like that of the alleged abuse and cover-up in Peel do profound damage. Better civilian oversight and higher professional standards would be good starts to repairing the frayed relationship between police in this province and the communities they serve.

Clarification – September 8, 2017: This article was edited from a previous version that referred in the opening paragraph to Peel officers. In fact, as stated in subsequent references, the officers involved were members of the York Regional Police.