Would you get into trouble for this?

[ECJW98]

Something that happened at my sister’s work today… they found a car with 2 young children locked inside (aged around 4-5 years old), they checked the CCTV and they had been left there for approximately 4 hours at this point with no-one coming back to check on them.

They rang the police (as you do!) and around an hour later, they still hadn’t arrived as they said they was “very busy”. The children were hysterical at this point but no-one would step in and smash the windows to get them out because they were scared about getting into trouble and having charges pressed against them.

I mean, if that was me, I would have smashed the windows and faced the consequences later on but it got me thinking - based on these circumstances and the fact that 2 young children were at risk - would someone get into trouble if they did this to rescue them?

When we bought our 2nd hand car (Vauxhall), the dealer told us not to deadlock it with someone inside as they wouldn't be able to get out in an emergency..

If people were worried about breaking the window, why didn't they call the police back and say "is breaking the window the right thing to do, these children are in distress?" I assume (hope!) they'd have been told to go ahead. And then they'd have had that back up of "the police said it was fine" if that's what they were worried about.

Not necessarily. My brothers a Firefighter & they don't turn out for calls like that anymore

I would have been calling the police to let them know I was smashing the window in. I hope the kids are ok 😔

I'd have tried to see if the kids could open the front door from the inside. Or ask the police on the phone if you should smash the window. But you'd have to be careful not to hurt the kids. In all honesty they were very upset but they don't sound like they were in actual danger at that stage as everyone was keeping an eye on the car? If they looked in danger then the police would have come quicker I'd imagine. They don't give a crap if someone is distressed anymore they don't have time or resources they only care if you're about to die of a crime

I think they do care, but they're aren't enough police officers due to massive cuts (over 20,000) under the Tories. It takes time to build that up again.

If the kids were strapped in to car seats they might not have been able to move around and open the lock.

I feel like 5 hours in this weather is too long to be safe. If the police couldn't come, I would probably ask if any other first responders could attend or at least offer advice over the phone.

When the police give a shit response to something like this you need to get straight on twitter tagging them, your mp, the local paper, etc. That'll get them moving.

I'd have smashed the window. You would only get into trouble if the owner pressed charges, and hopefully the owner would be relieved - presumably something had happened to them.

I'd have requested the fire service

Child locks? Strapped into car seats? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Did they ring 999?
I would have smashed a window

Maybe tell the police someone had tweeted hurty words? That might have got a quicker response 😡

They’ve never had child locks at the front. If the child can get out of its car seat, persuade it to move to the front and open the door.

Or call a garage, as you would if you locked your car hey inside

I would have smashed the window or shouted "does anyone know how the locks work on this car" (I know nothing about cars) incase someone knows a trick to open the doors.
I would have called the fire brigade first rather than the police or maybe a local mechanic who might have been able to dash down and get the kids out.
Poor kids.

I accept that emergencies can happen at any time, but who in their right mind would leave children of that age alone in a car for any time to start with?

I think I would have called the police back and said there was a strong smell of petrol coming from the car and I was worried about the possibility of a passer-by discarding a cigarette end.

I would lose a lot of respect for anyone that stops to think deeply about themselves in an emergency situation. It sounds like something went very wrong that day

They probably didn’t have an officer to attend, sadly I’m not even joking or making an excuse, in our force we often have 3 officers left after hospital watch, high risk missing persons, arrests and custody watch, this is to cover hundreds of square miles inc one city and around 12 surrounding villages, one car accident where traffic control in needed and that’s it, no officers!

It’ll get worse, most forces have frozen recruitment because of Gov funding cuts so leaving/retiring officers won’t be replaced.

It’s quite frankly shit, unacceptable and people need to know how bad it is.

Many officers are parents and would be just as angry when if the call was put out over the radios, there is also a chance they didn’t even know if the dispatcher was already aware all officers were allocated it might not have even reached the response teams.

Just to add you wouldn’t have got in to trouble smashing the window to prevent harm.

If the police were too swamped to attend the scene wouldn't they still be able to quickly trace the car owner and make a call? It's most likely someone forgot to drop them off or had a medical emergency themselves. They could have been really nearby and someone would have arrived with keys in minutes. That would be the ideal solution.

Write to the chief constable. That is disgraceful. You could have called the fire brigade.

I wouldn't give a toss about the damage to the car, but I'd be very worried about the children being injured in the process of the window being broken, so wouldn't do it unless they were at risk of dying from extreme temperatures. I'd obviously stay out and try to keep them calm, though.

Please do. If cops didn't attend that call then you can be 100% sure there genuinely were none available. Probably several crews sitting in a&e with MH patients.

I cant begin to tell you how often I get a call which urgently needs attendance and there's genuinely absolutely noone available.

The constant cut backs are what's responsible for the shocking drop in response cops. Its not that they don't care or cba it's that they're at breaking point with the calls they're expected to deal with

The powers that be don't care. So please do write to your MP or the Chief Constable or anyone else who might be able to do something

What would be the point of that. If that was the case you'd phone the fire service. Making up that kind of story isn't going to get a faster police response

I doubt you would get into trouble, but my concern would initially be that me breaking a window could scare them more than the police doing it, as I would be messy and uncontrolled as I don't know the best way.
However I wouldn't have waited an hour.

Poor little things. Not remotely comparable but I once broke a window to get a dog out of a hot car and, while I had to do a lot of explaining and paperwork I didn't get in trouble.