text: What makes this news? Is it because this rarely happens? If so, that means the police are doing a  good job though they need to review policy.
  Is this news because it is a flagrant error, allowing a known criminal to receive help? Certainly the father had a criminal record for theft and is wanted in another state.  For me, this is worth noting, but hardly worth placing on the front page of the RG.
  This is news because it meets a couple of criteria: The error confirms the running narrative that our public servants are incompetent AND that the poor are scamming us. Unfortunately, we tend to emphasize the frequency of things that are made salient, rather than say, a statistical analysis. We also emphasize things that confirm our existing beliefs. This piece about the police and one family means more readers can say, "I knew it all the time."
  There is no story about the successes of police helping families. To judge the system one needs to view it in the context of the whole program.