It's illegal to keep children overnight

In a world where it is illegal to keep children in an adult's home overnight (like foster kids, but it's a law applied to everyone), the police find a young girl (about 8 years old) sleeping in a man's bed. After the police take her and him away, the man tells them that she is his daughter, and that she needed to sleep in his bed because it was raining too loudly and scared her. How do the police react? Do they a) believe him, b) don't believe him and keep the girl away from him, or c) keep the girl away from him and take away his daughter because a) they don't believe him/the girl isn't his daughter, b) he broke the law, or c) they think the law is more important than a family's well-being?<br><br>This is a very important story, because it relates to my real life. I have to write a story for a writing competition, and the theme of the competition is "Front Door Open". Just to clarify, this theme means that the story should start with someone entering through a front door, but it doesn't have to relate to the story's overall theme. In order to make my story relate to the theme, I will write it in the perspective of the family dog, who is waiting by the door for his people to come home. The overall themes of the story are a) a family's love for one another, b) the innocence of children, and c) the purity of the relationship between a pet and their owner. For these themes to shine through, they need to be juxtaposed with the law enforcement's reaction to the situation. My issue is that I want to portray the law enforcement in a way that will show them as very strict and uptight, especially when it comes to children. The problem with this is that it might undermine the themes of a) a family's love for one another, and b) the innocence of children. What I mean is that the law enforcement's reaction might make it seem like the child is better off without the family, which is not what I want. I want to show that the family is a perfectly normal and healthy family who loves their child dearly, but the police are so strict that they can't see that. Please help me figure out how the police could react in a way that will support the overall themes of the story.