Bad gas travels fast in a small town. If the city officials are corrupt they’ll share information. I had issues like this in a college town with a permanent population of only 7000.

I reported my neighbor, in a 4 unit apartment block inhabited 80% by students, when they threatened my SO and I and screamed at us through the door of the the shared building entrance after their dog chased us down a flight of stairs. We then ran around the corner and called the cops and they eventually showed up like 30 minutes later (the police station was exactly 1 mile away) and made sure they were back in their apartment. When the building owner and management company had a meeting with us about it they said he was a “good kid” and “knew him since he was little” which I told them just meant they were biased. It took 10 more weeks after that and multiple domestic disturbance calls to throw them out.