To think police have just ignored potential child abuse? - advice needed

[AdviceNeededArgh]

Friend overheard something that sounded awful tonight whilst walking down the street. Noises from inside a house, window open. (Being purposely vague.)

Friend actually intervened by yelling out and said she was going to call the police.

Police arrived promptly, checked with friend what happened, then went to investigate.

They called a bit later to say that they'd talked to the adult and the children in the house, who'd given a reason as to why a child had been crying.

However, my friend heard a lot more than just a child crying! AIBU to think the police have been really stupid to accept an excuse that doesn't even make sense, from a household primed that police were on their way? Please tell me this isn't routine!

And, what the hell do we do about it? Contact them again? Contact Social Services?

You have no idea how thorough the police actually were, they were probably just fobbing your friend off rather than being fobbed off themselves. There are multiple reasons for what your friend heard. A broken toy could lead to a fight between siblings or a child having a tantrum and hitting their parent and the parent shouting in either circumstance for example. My girls physically fight sometimes and the younger one gets in a rage and hysterical. Yes I shout. Dread to think how it sounds to the neighbours sometimes. Anyway a multi agency report will go to SS. If it's a reasonable explanation (they'll get the full details that your friend won't have) they may not pick it up at all, it will also get sent to GP/HV and crucially, to school. School are usually the best places to know if there are issues at home on going and if there have never been any concerns and this is the first report to these agencies then it will just be filed. If there are current concerns then it could set a ball rolling. At our school the family worker would reach out to the family following a police report like this and offer support. The approach would vary depending on the family and current concern levels. Your friend won't be informed of any of this. They have basically done what they said and contacted her to put her mind at rest with zero actual relevant details, because that's not her business.

I hope you're right midnightstar66.
If that's the case I wish they'd just said "the situation has been dealt with" or something similarly vague! The weirdly precise detail but then missing a bit is what got me worried!