Bureaucracies operate by standard procedures. Official documents are produced by standard procedures and official documents are often available to the public on

Bureaucracies operate by standard procedures. Official documents are produced by standard procedures and official documents are often available to the public on a standard search - in the case of police, official documents would also be available to judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys. Unofficial documents are produced by official not using standard procedures in any variety of ways (searching a private company's database in this instance). Generally, doing this is against the regulations of a bureaucracy. But American police view themselves and often treated as above regulations, even their own regulations. So American police often produce and keep unofficial documents with no consequences.