The most charitable way of describing West Midlands Police's approach towards the Channel 4 documentary Undercover Mosque is that it was bizarre.

Programme-makers uncovered and recorded examples of religious hatred and misogyny in a detailed documentary.

Police launched an investigation but chose, for reasons which have not yet been explained, to focus on the documentary makers rather than the people they had filmed.

Along with the Crown Prosecution Service, West Midlands Police accused the producers of "heavily editing" the words to give them a sinister meaning - an allegation, one must hastily point out, that was entirely untrue.

In fact, police and the CPS were ordered to pay £100,000 in damages and legal fees, when the documentary-makers sued for libel. This money, of course, ultimately comes from us, the taxpayers.

One might very well wonder whose head is going to roll as a result, but it seems unlikely that anyone will be forced to take responsibility for this mess.

It's possible that West Midlands Police will take some kind of disciplinary action against whoever took the decision to complain to TV watchdog Ofcom about the documentary.

Alternatively, it might not. Either way, we are unlikely to know about it, as it will probably be considered an internal matter rather than a matter of public interest.

In the circumstances, David Cameron's suggestion that police could be governed by elected commissioners is particularly pertinent.

Police authorities already exist, and it could be argued that they already hold police forces to account.

But they don't have a high profile. Many people don't know who their councillors are. It seems unlikely that they would know the name of a councillor, who might represent not just a different ward but a different city, who sits on the police authority.

Police commissioners might deal with this issue. Unlike American-style elected sheriffs or police chiefs, they would take operational control of forces - leaving that to chief constables - but they would control budgets, target setting and policing plans.

It's uncertain whether another tier of politicians is what police services need. But something seems to have gone wrong at West Midlands Police, and it would be reassuring if the force publicly acknowledged this and explained what it intended to do as a result.