Where did you ever get such an insane idea? I don't know who is dumber. You for posting this nonsense, or the dog worshiping Altariel who apparently believes it.
Where did you get the idea that in a situation where there may be potentially be a real criminal case down the road that you can start by gathering information surreptitiously?
In this instance ~ a question of what address relates to what person, there is no general federal record to reference for that purpose ~ but there are private records, e.g. a phone book perhaps.
The question was why cops end up with bad addresses and there's your answer ~ they don't look ~ and they don't look because virtually every readily accessible source they could use is privately held.
I have no doubt that his police friends were more than happy to get him to collect constitutionally protected information on their behalf.
That is the attitude which disturbs me—the notion that one believes it acceptable to decimate constitutionally protected information to the police simply because one is also a government employee.
Apologies for not making that clearer.