That's the response I would expect from a government man. When in doubt, involve the government.
Who says the mother was in doubt? She may well have tried to intervene while the beating was going on, and couldn’t because the father threatened her too. Leaving welts on a 7 year old for breaking a toy is way out of control behavior. In this case, the government’s role was to intervene at the request of a private citizen. Perfectly appropriate IMO, just so long as the father gets a fair trial, to determine as best as possible what really happened.