I’VE often said in this column that we give too much credit to the people at the top of organisations.

Sharp suits, six or seven-figure salaries and an ability to trot out well-crafted soundbites don’t mean these people have what we pay them for – the ability to exercise sound judgement.

The arrest of Damian Green, Opposition spokesman on immigration, illustrates what I’ve been saying.

Yesterday I tried to map out the salient facts of this shambles, what key figures such as the Home Secretary, the Speaker and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and his senior staff knew, when they knew it and what they told each other.

Now, I’m quite a persistent person. In the words of Peter Mandelson, who himself made a guest appearance in this farce, I am not a quitter. But I gave up after a while. But not before I came across one glaring fact. There was a total breakdown in communications. Information that should have been shared was withheld; decisions with huge implications – operational for the police, constitutional for the politicians – were taken by people who had not found out all the relevant facts.

Most of all, at every turn, people failed to consider the implications of what they were doing or to challenge the course of events that was unfolding – in other words to exercise judgement. It was this accountability vacuum that allowed the police to proceed without a warrant and a senior Parliamentary official even to ask whether they had one.

There’s an old saying that for evil to flourish all that’s needed is for good people to do nothing. Now what happened here was not evil; just foolish, unnecessary and, most of all, way over the top.

But it was typical of a mindset that is currently far too common in police forces and public life in general. It is a mindset that doesn’t challenge the orthodoxies or upset the consensus; in other words it doesn’t rock the boat.

It is comfortable for the people in charge and comforting for the public. But it doesn’t make for good government or effective policing.

What should have happened is clear. The police knew for more than a fortnight that Mr Green might be implicated in the leaks. No lives were at risk; no suspect likely to abscond.

They should have contacted him and made an appointment to interview him under caution.

They should have obtained a warrant for any subsequent searches.

Because the police know that they have got it wrong. The speed with which they announced an external inquiry into the matter said as much. Mr Green won’t face any charges.

All eyes are currently on the politicians and in particular the Speaker and the Home Secretary.

But the focus will soon be on the Metropolitan Police. People will find it disturbing that an organisation with an acting commissioner, deputy commissioner and four assistants, all equal in status to a chief constable, can between them exercise such poor judgement.

The Met, of course, is currently looking for a new commissioner. On this evidence he or she won’t be found within its own ranks.

But the Met’s problems have implications for police everywhere. Its profile and influence means that other forces and the public look to it for a lead. In recent times they have looked in vain as the force has been implicated in some terrible and tragic misjudgements.

The police generally command greater public confidence than politicians, but that trust has to be earned. Before they blunder into the House of Commons, the Met needs to put its own house in order, and quickly.