When is it not an Emergency Count?!

I have posted on this Blog. in the past about count procedures, I'm kinda at a loss for words. I cant seem to find any verbiage on what a "Informal Count" is? I thought the most important thing we do in the institution is accountability of Inmates.
So someone please answer this, If all criteria is met for an "Emergency Count", why not implement the count? I arrived for my shift at 2:00 p.m and there was a count in progress. And I was told that count had not cleared, but yet I saw everyone getting relieved and leaving for the day. So I asked myself, if count is not clear, then why are we allowing staff to leave? Nobody seemed to know the answer! I thought well who then will finish the count? If an escape detail needed to be called who will go out? So the bottom line was count cleared after 3 hours.
The most important lesson learned was at least count finally cleared. Then I had to remind myself of the famous phrase "This is how we do it here at CIM"