The Ratchet
One problem inherent in cases of this sort is the potential for somewhat mindless escalation of the seriousness of a situation by individuals who are ill-qualified, ill-informed, tired, angry, confused or frightened by the circumstances of the moment.
In the aviation version of this, the outcome that people read about is an airplane on a mountainside or wedged in a marsh.
The law-enforcement version is quite similar, but it appears as a case which begins with very odd and sketchy initial circumstances. Each escalation of authority in the decision proocess ratchets the concept from complaint to suspicion to matter to charge to proceeding. The ranks of officialdom close up behind the process makers and no hint of any error is likely to emerge - except on the bloody end of discovery and maybe in the appeals process.
The first escalation in the instant case now seems complete and the official players are evidently solidified into very hard positions. Whether a mindless escalation has occurred here - or not - remains to be determined by the rough grinding of the legal machinery. All too often, in the U.S. at least, the hamburger that comes out of legal process no longer resembles in any way the "facts" that went in. This is amplified by a pronounced tendency to overcharge individuals in every manner possible so as to bludgeon them into early confession... ahead of fact-finding. Any resemblance of U.S. style "plea-bargaining" to the Spanish Inquisition is purely chimerical, of course. Leakage to the press of incriminating allegations and details that undermine the defendant's ability to defend himselt is icing on the case.... er.. cake.
It all starts with an unexpected situation arriving in the lap of someone who is marginally prepared to handle it. A necessary second ingredient is some inexorable outside pressure that demands quick action, rather than more deliberate or thoughtful study and problem-solving.
In an aircraft, there are ample time pressures, even when something important is not broken or failing. In police work, the pace can sometimes be more leisurely, except in the presence of reporters, crowds of bystanders, schedules that are about to change the circumstances, strange accents, bad vibes, etc.
With a marginally competent (at the moment) decisionmaker and a swift need to do SOMETHING, the conservative and (one might say) reasonable choice is to follow procedures with the utmost care and diligence. In an airplane this usually means "read the book" or "gawk the efis" to determine the data and SOPs that might apply. In law enforcement it tends to mean: "assume the charges and use that justification to call in a superior (who will then inherit responsibility for the actual decision)."
After a few iterations of either approach, all the opportunity for a graceful, fact-oriented, and de-escalated resolution of the problem is gone in the wind.
The consequenses then ensue.
It's called "decision by default".