More recent investigations based on large population-based samples have continued to support these findings.
Even as federal investigators opened and closed five investigations based on Ford's assurances that it knew of no particular defect, the company never provided regulators with more than a dozen documents that would have shed light on the problem.
"Police will conduct follow-up investigations based on the information provided," it said.
They often pursue costly investigations based on hunches, which are usually wrong, he says.
State officials also opened five investigations based on the results of erasure analysis elsewhere.
Last November, the Guardian and other news outlets published detailed investigations based on leaked, PwC-drafted Luxembourg tax rulings.
The findings have been referred to prosecutors, who have opened several investigations based on previous audits.
Also troubling, here and elsewhere in the N.S.A. story, is the dismissive treatment of the constitutional implications of investigations based on big data.
"We do not open investigations based on individuals who exercise the rights afforded to them under the First Amendment," Mr. Bresson said.
Critics, however, argue that the independent ethics office has unfairly caused embarrassment to House members, initiating investigations based on complaints that have no merit.
"Murder They Wrote," a six-week series that gets "48 Hours" started in its new time slot (Friday sat 10 p.m ., takes viewers on criminal investigations based on true-crime books, with their authors as in-house guides.
