Peace: A couple of months ago there was an article in the LA Daily Journal, which unfortunately does not publish online, about an LAPD detective who was investigating a priest. The parish was pretending to give their full cooperation. The cop wanted to find a potential witness – a boy from the parish, now probably in his early twenties or something. What he didn't know was that he was looking for him under the wrong surname / nickname. So he decided to comb the neighborhood and schools within a certain radius. At a public school, he found records of a girl who interested him (I forget why.) He found her. She told him the nickname was her brother, who was living close by. When they went to talk to him, he broke down crying and "admitted" to the abuse. He had been and alter boy and his family had been longstanding members. According to the detective and the article, there was no way the parish didn't know his real name all along.

So there are police investigations.