Calling the police to check on a crying baby

[summermumma2021]

Just had to call the police to check on a new neighbours baby. What would
you have done in this situation?
New neighbours live down our road around 100m away from us and could hear loud very distressed crying for over half an hour.

It sounded like a newborn or young baby crying and so I assumed they’d settle or some attempt to comfort them would be made but the crying stayed at the same level for ther period time. I could also hear raised voices and car doors slamming and I asked my husband if he’d heard it too (he was downstairs) and he said yeah he was worried as well.

Anyway in hoping it was nothing and the little one is fine but it just didn’t sit right and it sounded like no attempt to comfort them was being made at all.

i have no idea who the new neighbours are as it’s quite far from our bit of the road but for it to be that loud from this distance didn’t seem right. I have also had three colicky babies so I do know babies can cry for periods of time but as I said it sounded like no attempt to help them was being made.

Anyway police treating it as a priority case and checking things out. Just wanted to share really as worried.

I’d have to double check but a few police officers she’s replied as well as people who work in safeguarding.

I find that bonkers, have you guys checked the news lately? We know all babies cry for x and y but as an experienced mom the OP felt this was a distressing long cry and "it ddn't sounded right". I believe a welfare check should be the norm, just like when you fear for an older person?

People who say they do.

People say anything on the internet.

Well, in that case, you could have made up every post you've made in this thread.

No, I don't seriously think a baby crying for half an hour warrants a call at all. I do think a baby crying for half an hour, PLUS repeated doors slamming and shouting that's of the level that two neighbours are genuinely concerned warrants a call. If the neighbours are unusually anxious and don't have a good understanding of what should raise a concern, I hope someone knowledgeable in their lives has the time to gently tell them they jumped the gun, but until then better safe than sorry.

My baby had colic and would scream even when I was holding him.
However I suppose you cannot be too careful, no harm done.

Yes, I agree. It's the assumption that a baby would only cry for half an hour if they weren't being soothed, and that a stranger can tell the difference in cry in a baby that is being comforted compared to a baby being soothed that bothers me. I used to put my newborn in the sling to try to sooth him and he'd arch his back away from me and scream his head off relentlessly. Sometimes I did need to put him down and step away for ten minutes for my own wellbeing. I lived in a flat at the time and thankfully no one ever called the police, but a couple of my neighbours did knock on the door occasionally to ask if I needed anything which I really appreciated.

They do indeed, some people spout all sorts that people are bonkers for using common sense to act on safeguarding concerns, can you believe it.

But no, no-one has to believe anyone on t'internet, but if we all have to start displaying our checked credentials it's going to cut down on posting a hell of a lot. If I was going to make something up, I think I'd be a retired investment banker, the money, the hours and the consulting work offers sound amazing.

My neighbours once mentioned that our child's crying was disturbing them at night - detached house, but hot weather and windows open. The attempts to "settle them" (like singing lullabies to them) would generally have been far quieter than the distressed crying because we tried to keep our noise down. Door slamming could be a breeze and raised voices when you are sleep deprived are not that unusual. If the police had turned up they might have been given the baby with a "you try settling them" or "will you please speak to our gp and tell them this isnt normal."

How could she tell the door slamming shouting was even in the same house. She is 100 m away apparently snd presumably there are plenty of other houses around. Maybe it's because I live in a city where neighbour's actually know each other but I can't imagine phoning the police if I heard a baby crying for half an hour. My first response would be to ask my neighbour if all was well.

Yes.
Best to stay off MN then.

Yes, there have certainly been a few doors slamming in my house due to DH's idea that there must be airflow through the house to cool it down.

Equally, how would you know they're not from the same house? Either the layout of the neighborhood is such OP could tell, or she's going to be on to the police every other night when random doors slam and I'm sure they'll instruct her on using common sense.

If you don't own/don't want doorstops, anything heavy works just the same - packs of tins, boxes of stuff etc.

We've had that too! I need to buy doorstops.

Well generally people don't have their windows open much in the UK so wouldn't even hear doors slamming from 100 m away. So she won't be in contact with the police every other night

Yea? When you were a baby you cried so much the police turned up at our house? I would tell that to them when they got older, it's a story if they aren't doing anything wrong.

You keep saying you couldn't go to the house because your own children were asleep - but your husband was at home too, so one of you could have gone. I'm not saying that you necessarily should have, but the fact that your own children were at home is irrelevant surely?

She said car doors - generally they aren't kept behind house windows.

Or something awful could be happening.
And everyone would say how terrible that neighbors heard and did nothing.
sometimes you have to err on the side of caution for a baby or child’s sake.
If nothings happened then it’s no issue

At night in a heatwave? You think everyone’s got their windows shut at night?

Or be sceptical rather than blindly assuming people are telling the truth.

What happened?

I don't really understand this as you said both you and your husband were in the house. In that case I would have just asked him to walk by their house to see if everything seemed ok. This is partly because I would assume that the police would turn up (if at all) 3 hours after any inciden- from experience!) I also don't get how you know that the noise of a crying baby and other noises were from the same household anyway. Unless you could see stuff happening.

Anyway, my dd in particular had a blood curdling cry - whether being cuddled or not- and both of mine were born in heatwaves so the wondow were always open. My poor neighbours!

Hmm if only the neighbours of Leiland Corkill and Finley Bevan had called police when they heard a baby continuously screaming. In both those cases they admitted they heard what sounded like abuse and did nothing.