actually investigative work
no subpoena's, no user profile aggregators
its the most acceptable use of public resources and is hardly news in 2020 but its nice to read that public servants will do some basic stuff like this.
It if were parallel construction, the intent would be for the forward construction to seem more logical to you.
In this case, you could be proving the efficacy of the tactic.
and really the only reason thats an interesting public service announcement is by thinking this kind of googling in this article was complicated at all.
the "forward construction" is so easy that you should just assume anyone in any agency is competent enough to do this.
anybody that has looked up a friend from high school, or a potential date, or needed a way to contact someone, should have been inspired enough to do this before. and if you weren't, now you are.