> Complaints for years, yet decided to stop recording data... That's sketchy as hell.

The motivation could also be practical. Studies are canceled for a variety of reasons unrelated to the conclusion: flawed design, poor data collection process, data doesn't generalize, data isn't specific enough, study has run out of budget, something significant changed in the middle of the study, etc.

> something significant changed in the middle of the study

"Oh shit! They're right. Our agents are bullies and thugs stealing from the citizens. Better stop looking"