You never have to thank me for my thoughts, although sometimes I may have to apologize for them. :-)
As for sloppy policework -- well, it wasn't a bad choice of words. I know people in LE, and, as good as American LE is in general, they're only human, and they screw up. And they most often screw up by being lazy or sloppy. It happens. They know it, and do their best to stamp it out, but its a persistent part of the human condition in general, and it'll always be there. I could be right in my belief this is a runaway and they downgraded it; I could be right that it was a runaway and wrong about the downgrading part, very easily indeed. If I was a betting man, I'd say the odds are even on sloppy versus very smart and controlled.
Wait, I *am* a betting man. "The odds are even". :-)