This is bad PR for Apple no doubt. No good way to spin this.
Here’s my take on what probably happened:
Retired cop now works for apple investigation unit calls up some of his buddies on the police force. They go with him and they all act like cops (after all that guy was a cop for 26 years). So they let him search the guys house and they found nothing.
The police said they didn’t do any searches at first because this wasn’t official. But then it hits the news and they say oh crap lets file the report. They claim they just assisted apple to the house (I guess the iPhone can’t navigate them to the guys house with a police escort /sarcasm).
So the 2 apple employees impersonated cops. The cops that helped were used for intimidation to make sure they all looked like cops. Just showing up with 1 cop wasnt’ enough badges to overwhelm the guy. So they come with 4 cops and 2 apple employees. Flash badges and wammo which ones aren’t the real cops?