To ask the police why they are on my road?

[chouxchoux]

I’m single and live alone on the ground floor. I live in a very, very quiet area (rural countryside, my village has <500 people in it). Crime rate is very low and I feel safe here. Rarely see or hear of any trouble.

Tonight there is a police car parked right outside my house, behind a civilian car it seems. The lights are flashing on the police car. It’s dark and not street lit so I can’t see much of what’s going on, and my Ring doorbell is out of range to pick up on what they’re saying. Because I’m alone and on the ground floor it’s really freaking me out. It’s been going on for about 40 minutes. Would I BU to contact the non emergency police number and ask what’s going on? I wouldn’t ask for details but even just to know what type of crime they’re here for would maybe (or maybe not) put my mind at ease. I’ve got a busy day at work tomorrow and it’s really stressing me out 😔

They won't tell you anything. If you needed to know anything they will contact you.

You're in England now.
Just chill out. No need for anxiety or alarm.
Relax and let the police do their job.
It's no big deal.

I'm now only interested in whether Stream is mid-40s, 70+ or a completely different age 😂
Given their nasty little comments, I'm guessing a tween with too much time on their hands!

I can see you've asked now. I was going to say, I've often asked (Londoner) and they'll generally tell you a potted version or say they can't. Never been arsey about being asked. Not sure why everyone's being so headgirlish about it.

Me too.
So many mean people on here tonight.
There's nothing wrong with being curious op, it's how we learn.

Yep, YABU. Any problem will be dealt with if the police are there.

I think if there was anything on your road they would knock on especially if they noticed your doorbell and wanted footage.

Ah there you go op no probs. Hope you offered the poor lad a cuppa.

Come on @Stream what about ye? (Sorry too much retro Corrie watched recently)

Me three.
Hope you're OK OP.

Stream got totally rumbled. Nice one OP.
Hope you're feeling better, lots of nasty comments on this thread.

Stream’s gonna come back and say you’re weird for stalking her and make some crack about nosiness.

YABU it's non of your business. Whatever has happened the police are there dealing with it.

They will tell you there’s nothing to worry about.

I was recently assured of this by two armed policemen as I left my local pub and the road to my immediate left was lit up by a police blockade.

We had an unmarked police car parked in our private road during a covid lockdown (only 3 houses so it wasn’t subtle 😄) - turns out they were doing surveillance on a house on the Main Street our road was attached to. Probably not surveillance if their lights are flashing but just shows they have a wide range of duties and call-outs.

I’m glad you found out op and hope you are fine now.

the posts on here are seriously nasty and shocking. The op is treasonable to want to know what is going on right outside her house, especially as she’s rural, ground floor and alone. Ok the police might not have been able to tell her, but she was still reasonable to want to know. Horrible load of mean girls on here.

In all honesty I’d probably pop out and ask, is everyone ok, does anyone need anything. I think where you live and the general feeling of your community probably makes a difference but here that would be totally normal.

Born in the 1940's? 🤣

So many mean comments on this post, I’d be worried if a police car was parked outside my house with flashing lights and would 100% want to know why. I think it’s natural when you live in your own to be slightly concerned about something like this.

My neighbour also lives alone and is quite elderly. I can imagine she would be quite frightened by it

Or more likely shes not in the least bit frightened by a police car outside her house - you know like about 95% of people wouldn't be

I bet you're one of these drivers who slows down to 5mph passing a police car to see what's going on 🙄

I’m surprised with some of the responses. I live in an area where we get quite a lot of police and they’re always happy to summarise. I don’t see the problem, especially in a quiet area.

It's actually perfectly normal to want to know what's happening in your neighbourhood. It can be important to have that information. There's a difference between asking for the basic facts of a situation and rubbing your hands together gleefully at the first sniff of scandal, then pumping people for information out of idle curiosity.

I guarantee you that far fewer than 95% couldn't give a shit about a police car outside their house in a quiet area. Just because some people suffer from an acute lack of interest in the world around them doesn't mean that's the norm, and wanting a rough summary of what's happening doesn't mean you're scared witless, either.

I would wonder why the police were there but I wouldn't expect them to tell me - I would think in many cases they couldn't.

Glad it's sorted OP

OP, for future reference, if its serious you'll usually have an extra few police cars along in quick succession, and you'd usually have police knock on your door to keep ypu updated or ask for any information if there's any possibility that you may be impacted at all.
In future please try not to worry. If the police are there, it's all in hand.
In this country, police can, and do act very quickly, and there will often be an influx of police cars within minutes if there's a situation that appears like its getting out of hand.

Yup. I’ve asked for details before and have been given a summary/reassured before, though admittedly I was outside talking in person on and not phoning (quite likely the person you reach wouldn’t know much).

I’ve also seen them from inside and not gone out. Usually the neighbours can fill you in later.

I’m guessing it’s long resolved now and hopefully OP got some sleep. Blue flashing lights through your bedroom curtains are a pain to sleep through!