After several months, the hackers had penetrated literally thousands of sites via the institution's machines. They had used those machines to develop various security penetration programs. The instution developed a bad reputation amoung the network community as it was seen as the source of a increasing number of attacks. They eventually saw the light and severed their involvement with the police - who immediately went to up to the highest level of management and applied strong political preassure to force their continued association. Feed the devil with a short spoon and you just may loose your whole arm.
Police are like journolists.
They want the BIG bust. It gets them promoted. If a crime is occuring then it should be stopped immediately. Though real world analogies are dangerous in this field lets look at one for a moment, concentrating only on the law enforcement aspect. Normal rapests hardly even make the papers these days.