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.

So sorry just seen your reply above

It’s just gone quiet now thankfully but they were crying a moment ago.

A crying baby, no I wouldn't have reported. A crying baby, raised voices and slamming car doors, my DH would have wandered up to the house and asked if everything was OK. If we'd not been reassured and despite that, felt domestic abuse was occurring, we'd have called the police.

Can you see out the window or go outside a sec to see if the noise has stopped in conjunction with a police outside - presumably doing a welfare check as they told you was being treated as priority? X

First rule of safeguarding:
its not your job to investigate

if something doesn’t sit right, you report and the experts can investigate

well done OP !!

Nothing better than a noisy neighbour who didn't want to talk to the parents before calling the police but happy to follow the police visit first line.

Thank you! That was my thinking too, to just pass it on and not to escalate anything by going over to investigate.

The OP is a neighbour, not someone in a school or hospital environment. The issue with society is the loss of community and people who care.

You did the right thing. If there were more people like you, some awful tragedies might have been avoided

I am interested to know which crimes, and how frequently they are being committed in your borough, that they are considered to be more important than a small baby, potentially being neglected, especially in this horrendous heat? It does not take a lack of fluids much time at all to make a young baby become very ill.

Firstly I’m not a nosy neighbour. Check your spelling!
Secondly I haven’t gone over to check anything, that wasn’t my post.

I reported a genuine concern to the relevant authorities. You would do well to check your own ethics around safeguarding rather than belittling a genuine concern.

Might I again emphasise these are new neighbours who live much further down the road from me and I could still hear a loud worrying cry. I was not the only caller apparently.

So yoi genuinely feel it would be better for me ( a neighbour they’ve never met) to walk down the road at this time of night and ask them “are you hurting each other and/or
your child?!” That definitely wouldn’t de escalate things would it. It’s better surely to pass it on to the relevant authorities who can make that sound judgement and also have more info. These aren’t my immediate neighbours who I know and just think that would’ve made things much worse.

Fights in progress, burglaries in progress, domestics in progress (confirmed ones!) People reported to have weapons, lives confirmed to be immediately in danger. All requiring an immediate police response when each area, maybe having 3 cars at the most if we're lucky - also has about 10 "priority" incidents to deal with at any one time.

With the amount of harrowing and devastating child abuse cases and child murders there have been in the media recently (Preston Davey, Isabelle Welsh etc.) you have done the right thing.

As you say: safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

OP, the "relevant authority" would have been social services.

I appreciates that most areas have a significant number of serious incidents to attend to at any given time. We thankfully live in a low crime rate area in a nice town. I was told it was a priority case due to the concern over a child and then shortly after the police car drove past us to the house. I was also told other calls had been made.

Tell me how you make and cool down a bottle whilst trying to soothe your baby in quick time then, super parent?

One could easily infer, from your posts on this thread, that nosy neighbours have resulted in unwanted calls from the Police to your home. Would you not be concerned in the circumstance the OP has described?

I didn’t know that who I was supposed to
call first.
i just assumed police were the best bet as they would decide whether social
services was needed or not.

We would have gone around and said hallo. Offered our help. Worked out if a call to the police was necessary. The police is quite busy on Friday night.
It's probably less traumatic to have a neighbor say hello than to have the police visit if nothing really is going on and just an unsettled child on a boiling hot night.
MN is always about the village and all that isn't it.

Have you read my posts at all....?

You wouldnt go after asking if they were hurting their child you would go round and ask if everyone was ok and then pick up from their vibe whether the police was needed what ever happened to just talking to people ?

No it wouldn't.

You did the right thing. Blimey some people on here are so callous