Calling the police to check on a crying baby

Why have you put 'genuine' cases in inverted commas when I made no mention at all of 'genuine cases'.

None of which has anything to do with her calling a poster (not the OP), a liar.

Where's the name change?

What are these "genuine" cases?

But they’re right! Read it all, OP has added bits on throughout, she said a baby crying (30 minutes that no one was helping to settle, raised voices, and a car door slamming driving off and returning. Now, she says they were screaming at the baby, screaming at each other, lots of doors slamming. It’s very questionable IMO. She also did random name change that someone called her out on.

I think, she called the police because Mrs Perfect Parent heard a baby crying and the main reason for the call is she assumed no one was consoling the baby. Since people have been calling her out, she’s changed her story and added bits on. Also, I think she took it to Mumsnet to make herself feel better because deep down she probably feels like she shouldn’t have called them.

That comparison is ridiculous.
The OP had an immediate concern for the child's welfare. It's not comparable to waiting for a GP appointment versus A&E.

I'm not your love.

Literally anyone else waiting for a Police unit to attend.

That's a bit like saying anyone with vague symptoms should go to A and E 'better to be safe than sorry' then wondering how that might mean other people have to wait.

Back at you my love

You’re a right charmer.

I didn’t call them a liar - I said I personally doubted the truth from their wording. Which I do. Whether they are a liar or not, only they will know. But I am allowed to doubt their words if I am unconvinced by them. Calm down.

Calling that poster a liar is uncalled for.

I think that as a parent and a mother you can sometimes just have a gut feeling that something isn’t right - and then you should act on it. If police dispatched it may even have been based on other calls they’ve had re. that address.
I’m lucky to live in a nice area with little visible crime, but every time the local crime stats are posted on our road WhatsApp domestic abuse calls and arrests is always the nicest figure - it’s really shocking.

Who would have to wait?

Somehow I doubt the truth of that from the wording of your posts … another hyperbole from you I suspect … but yes, have a great day sunshine

Im one of them ? Yeah I’m one of them. Former police officer. Former child abuse investigator. Former Crime academy trainer. Yeah. I’m one of them. Have a great day

OP actually had no real reason to believe the baby was in danger. A baby was crying for just 30 minutes - babies cry, it's the only way they can communicate. 8 hours later it might be crying again, it's what babies do. If every baby was reported when they had a long cry the police would do nothing else but visit crying babies.

The police were notified by medical stafff on that case though. Regardless, there might actually be more horror stories if police are so busy doing welfare checks on babies crying for half an hour that they don't have time to check where there is real concern.

But if you over dramatise every situation then you create another monster in society too where everyone expects the worst of each other and our already stretched resources are stretched to breaking point. The children you mention were shockingly let down and very tragic, but they are also thankfully the minority and we don’t need to jump to conclusions about anything else. Yes we should be more aware but we also need to be balanced. The circumstances mentioned here are very vague and all heard from a distance. I don’t think anyone here is saying if you have genuine cause to have concern for a child that it should not be reported- obviously it should!! However, some fact checking first would be a sensible approach. And some noises heard from 100m away that you cannot be sure all come from the same house do not justify a 999 call. Of course the police will dispatch. If somebody mentions a concern for welfare of a child they are duty bound to check it out. That doesn’t mean they thought it was necessary. If OP had taken a walk past to establish what noises were what and coming from where then I would be backing her all the way. However she didn’t. She made assumptions and speculated… from a distance!!!

Every single person who has the slightest inkling that a child could be in danger has a duty to report it. Then we might not have so many horror stories like that of little baby Preston or poor toddler Isabelle Walsh who was sexually abused and murdered by her parents.

Another 2 year old girl was found raped and murdered in a house in Chertsey on Thursday just gone. Who gives a shiny shit about potentially - and briefly - offending a struggling parent when it could mean saving a helpless child from horrendous abuse and death?

It's easy to see from these responses why so many poor little children slip through the cracks of our "society".

I accept that the OP may have heard something particularly concerning but objectively a baby crying for 30 minutes (she wouldn't know if they were being comforted at that distance), raised voices (didn't say screaming or distress from adults) and car door slamming, objectively really does not seem like a good reason to call the police. There was no reason to think this was domestic violence and these were neighbour's so no good reason to think it would be unsafe to knock on the door and check all was well either. And if she didn't want to knock on the door she could have at least walked nearer to check tge eaused voices and crying were from the same house.

That's if the baby was ok after 8 hours.

Oh Jesus you’re one of them, so this will be my last reply to you .. I didn’t say “ a great many people” so stop with the hyperbole. The “many” people that it could affect could potentially include the police who are pulled with limited resources, the people in genuine need of the police who have to wait because they are checking out a baby crying in a heatwave which many babies normally do, the parents who may suffer emotionally from this, the neighbours who may be woken up by the police … I could probably think of others as I have consideration for other people but you’ve either absorbed the point by now, or not. And no, the police would not rather go 100 times than not, trust me, I worked for the police for many years and this sort of unnecessary overreaction is very frustrating. A little fact checking first would be the sensible approach.

Had she have walked down the road she’d have confirmed it was one incident. She’s admitted the baby lives in a row of 4 terraced houses and she doesn’t know any of the residents. Just because there was a baby crying at the same time as other people shouting and someone else slamming a car door doesn’t mean it was all coming from the same house, and OP can’t be sure of that, especially when people live in close proximity of each other.

I don't think they will feedback to the OP on something sensitive like this. I've made two child welfare calls to the police over the years and never been updated. For one I know they definitely attended, as I kept the baby in my eye line until they did (they took less than 5 minutes).

That said, I did once report erratic driving (where a car mounted the curb at speed and nearly hit two schoolgirls) and got a call back to say thank you and that the driver was known to the police for alcohol related issues. So maybe it's down to the assigned officer.