The Police Service of Northern Ireland is a relatively young institution, having only been launched less than 22 years ago, but has still managed to make massive advances in the course of its short history.
It has transformed perceptions of policing in a divided society and been a key part of the wider progress which has followed the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
The perfect police service does not exist anywhere in the world, and the PSNI has also had to face many serious issues - many inevitable and some all too avoidable - since its inception.
A wider review of its structures is overdue, and whether some of its leading figures, up to and including chief constable Simon Byrne, will still be remaining in their posts is very much open to question, although it needs to be remembered that upheaval among police commanders is far from unknown internationally.
The basic function of policing remains protecting ordinary citizens and preserving the rule of law and order while at the same time ensuring the safety of individual officers both on and off duty.
It is completely unacceptable that extremists on both sides of the divide regularly set out to intimidate PSNI members, and the attempts by dissident republicans to attack and murder officers are both evil and repugnant.
The astonishing data leak within the PSNI which made the name, rank and station of every serving officer openly available online for several hours, has had an appalling impact on the service.
It was bound to be exploited by fringe groups, even though they have been comprehensively rejected by mainstream nationalism, as the temporary appearance of a poster on a main road through Dungiven, Co Derry, claiming to identify officers living in the general district, has demonstrated.
The placing of the banner plainly caused enormous anger in the area, even before it became clear that some of the basic allegations it contained were factually wrong, and it is essential that PSNI officers know that they have the support of the vast majority of the population as they go about their demanding duties.
These are difficult times for all those involved in policing, and the return of proper recruitment policies, including the restoration of the crucial 50/50 principle, needs to be taken forward.
What is vital is that the transformations which have been achieved by the PSNI since 2001 are not undermined during the present crisis.
