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Original poster

Would you report someone for smoking with their child in the car?

376 replies

JigglyTuff · 02/05/2017 09:13

Just walked past a woman waiting in her car for infant school gates to open. There was a child in the front seat. She was blowing her smoke out the window and I looked round because I could smell it and wondered where it was coming from.

Or should I just mind my own business?

OP posts:
Nicknacky · 03/05/2017 10:00

phylis I also agree with User, she is correct.

user1493022461 · 03/05/2017 10:03

So you realised you were wrong, why not just say so? No shame in it.
You can ask all you like, I'm not giving out any personal info on an open forum.

PhyllisNights · 03/05/2017 10:07

I didn't realise I was wrong at all. I said you could report to the police or social services and it could flag up, ring a bell, whatever. I wasn't thinking of the practically of databases and systems. Don't take everything so literally.

I actually have experience of working in the public sector. I know how tight the budgets are.

I would urge anyone, who is not like to user of Nicknacky, to report a crime such as this. It's not fair on the child.

WizardOfToss · 03/05/2017 10:12

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

anon1987 · 03/05/2017 10:13

I know someone who has a child protection order on their child, and during the conference meeting she was questioned about her smoking around her child.
She said that she doesn't smoke in the same room and smokes outside, and her sw said "but you smoke outside the car, when he's in it and that is smoking around your child, regardless of whether the door is shut, you haven't got access to clean clothes or hand washing facilities, so you shouldn't be doing it"
It was put down on her notes as a bad point and used against her.

PhyllisNights · 03/05/2017 10:16

WizardOfToss, critical thinking? I have a masters and a professional job. I use critical thinking all the time. Is critical thinking a popular term on this forum? It kept getting chucked around when I was trying to defend trans rights in the feminism sub-forum.

Oh, and there we go. My point exactly, anon1987.

Nicknacky · 03/05/2017 10:23

Phylis If you read my posts, no where have I said people shouldn't report minor offences. I have pointed out that it is unlikely to have the impact you think it has and it isn't as simple as someone "popping" into a police station for a reminder of the law.

It has been rightly pointed out to you that police and SS don't have computer systems that magically marry up these reports and build the picture that some posters seem to think.

I have never said not to report.

user1493022461 · 03/05/2017 10:23

I didn't realise I was wrong at all. I said you could report to the police or social services and it could flag up, ring a bell, whatever. I wasn't thinking of the practically of databases and systems. Don't take everything so literally

Which was why I so helpfully told you you were wrong. Which you then argued about. It's not my fault if you can't follow through on your own thought...you think it may flag up on...something but you didn't bother to finish the thought with how or with who?
Perhaps you should take things more literally? And you know, think before you comment?

BastardGoDarkly · 03/05/2017 10:24

Its counted as smoking around your child if you're outside the car?! Bollocks.

user1493022461 · 03/05/2017 10:24

Is critical thinking a popular term on this forum?

Alas no, if only it was. Perhaps there would be more incidences of it if there were.
You have a masters and are unfamiliar with critical thinking? Oh dear. Is it in golf course management or media studies?

PhyllisNights · 03/05/2017 10:25

It was a generalisation. It was a comment about how you could ring up and it would flag something up later down the line. It wasn't ringing 999 or 101 to report a crime and the telephone operator magically having a log of someone's crime history.

Nicknacky · 03/05/2017 10:28

You made a generalisation and a couple of us corrected that as you said yourself you don't know how the computer systems work, so what's the issue?

Why not just say "thanks for explaining that, I didn't realise that's how it works"?

user1493022461 · 03/05/2017 10:32

It was a wrong generalisation. Do you still think that it's true?

WizardOfToss · 03/05/2017 10:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Holz657 · 03/05/2017 10:59

I'm sure it's illegal? So yeah I would.

BastardGoDarkly · 03/05/2017 11:00

I concur Toss what what

PhyllisNights · 03/05/2017 11:05

It wasn't that I believed it, though! As I just said, I didn't believe you could report someone's registratin number on the phone and the operator was going to see all the crimes they had ever committed. You are completely taking my comments out of context.

I have a masters in HR, user. You are extremely rude.

You all just want to deter away from the fact that a mother has illegally smoked in a car with her child.

WizardOfToss · 03/05/2017 11:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

user1493022461 · 03/05/2017 11:35

You all just want to deter away from the fact that a mother has illegally smoked in a car with her child

Why would anyone want to do that? You are STILL missing the point; people do illegal or wrong things all day every day and nothing happens. Is this so hard to grasp? You can't report them, nobody wants your report, it is worthless. It is unactionable, it is a waste of time.

Be outraged. Be judgy. Just stop imagining that you can do anything about it.

KungFuPandaWorksOut16 · 03/05/2017 11:47

Got the giggles now of the image of a detective rounding up officers sitting them down and telling them how they've had a tip off.

Officers get excited thinking maybe it's something juicy

Detective : massive tip off we need too follow up. Doris this morning at 8.30 was spotted in her car.... smoking with her child in the car. Gear up we need too take her down.

FrenchMartiniTime · 03/05/2017 11:48

**Be outraged. Be judgy. Just stop imagining that you can do anything about

So we should all just go through life blinkered and have a "not my problem" attitude because the relevant authorities don't care anyway?

Do you have some kind of issue with the police? You don't hold them in very high regard and seem to tar them all with the same brush.

Fair enough a parent smoking in a car isn't exactly crime of the century, it's not a theft or a rape or a murder but it's still a crime that I would report. And I'll quite happily be called a busy body.

It's people like you with your lazy attitude to the justice system that makes people think that they can do what they like because nobody cares.

You're not setting a very good example if you have children.

user1493022461 · 03/05/2017 12:08

Do you have some kind of issue with the police? You don't hold them in very high regard and seem to tar them all with the same brush

You have some bizarre notions. Clearly its people like you I have a low regard for, making the job of the police more difficult by wasting their time.

Is it really so hard to understand that you cannot do anything about random unknowns with no evidence of any kind?

I'll ask you again, what do YOU think would happen when you call the police to tell them what happened in the OP? Please enlighten how you will have helped anyone?

FrenchMartiniTime · 03/05/2017 12:28

I don't know what area of the UK you are from but in my area you can face a £1000 fine for being caught smoking in a car with a child.

As a mere civilian all I could do would be to take the reg number (if the car was stationary obviously) report to police and hope they take appropriate action.

I have no concern about what regard you hold me in and I'm sure you couldn't care less what I think of your attitude.

I think it's a case of let's agree to disagree or we will be going round in circles.

FrenchMartiniTime · 03/05/2017 12:29

Hopefully the person I would have helped would be the child by giving the mum enough of a scare to stop smoking in the car with her child.

user1493022461 · 03/05/2017 12:29

You haven't answered the question. You can't be fined for someone saying you were smoking in a car with a child.
I'm not asking your opinion, I'm asking do you understand that basic fact?