Should we contact the police about people who won't stay home?

[Pinkyyy]

I've seen a lot of things on Mumsnet about people who basically don't give a fuck and still plan to leave their house for the most non-essential reasons imaginable.

Should we alert the police if we become aware of anyone I'm our local areas who do this? Or would that be a waste of police time?

No I won’t, this isn’t North Korea

I won't be responding any further. People are saying I'm like a Hitler follower just because I am concerned. No advice or helpful comments, just nasty ridicule and I have no desire to engage in it.

eyeroll

With the rise of local Facebook and WhatsApp groups it’s often very easy to know for sure what everybody is up to, but grassing people up and taking up police time should be reserved for very high risk activities.

Walking over to a neighbour’s house to deliver a washed Frozen DVD through their letterbox for their child to watch? Illegal but minimal risk and definitely not worth reporting.
Large scale lock-in down the local pub? Front room nail bar still operating? Probably worth reporting.

Anyone making ridiculous (and wildly offensive) comparisons to Hitler and Stasi need to understand that this is not a restriction on your freedom for nefarious authoritarian reasons, it is a necessary restriction to prevent mass death.

What part of preventing mass death do you people not understand?

This isn't an occupation or a war, it's a public health emergency. Lives are in danger and we are fast running out of time to slow the approach of the horrors that are coming our way.

Please stay home unless you absolutely can't and please report anyone who is endangering lives by flouting the rules.

We have a neighbour who is shouting on Facebook about all the people she can see in the village doing XYZ that should be fined and imprisoned (already on lockdown here in France) yet somehow her needs to be out and about are perfectly valid. The anger I feel pouring down the hill from her vantage point over the rest of the village is quite hard to bear. I have enough of my own fears and anxieties and do not need to fear that my neighbour will report me to the police for some imagined infringement.

I’m surprised they aren’t encouraging children to inform on their parents.

This is how it starts...

No because that person could be a single parent like me who needs essentials like food and toileteries. I have no choice but to get a shop in because my delivery was cancelled and i can't get a slot. If i don't feed my children no one else is going to are they and if im arrested they'll have no parent. Luckily my eldest is old enough to stay in with the others.

And no i only leave for food and local shop only allows 1 item of each and that doesn't last long with 4 kids even though I'm rationing us.

I have two members of the same family either side of me, both with kids. They have been acting like it is the summer holidays going between eachother's houses, playing on our drive, looking after eachothers children, huddling in their gardens and even allowing their 1.5 year old out to play in the street without adult supervision just that of the older children.

Even had their relative round yesterday with her children out playing aswell and they all just sat about chatting as if we are not in the midst of a pandemic. One of the adults is also a careworker for vulnerable people.

Honestly it absolutely shocks me, and it makes me not want to go out into my own garden or let my son go out there.

Even when taking our bins out for collection it's impossible to maintain social distancing. We live rurally so they probably think the same rules don't apply or no one will take any notice.

This is unacceptable behaviour during lockdown isn't it?!!

Flounce away, OP. Flounce away.

I still wouldn't call the police on them however.

There was a group of over 130 teenagers gathered in our local park - many of them drunk. This was in an evening - where on earth did their parents think they were? Police had to send messages out asking parents to exercise their parental responsibility and collect their kids!

I have more distain for people organising larger gatherings, putting lives at risk, than I do for people calling the police.

No one round here is doing any gatherings I can see, from my spare bedroom/office.

But if you can see people doing it, without going out if your way to start monitoring people, not sure why you wouldnt.

We followed the previous advice and didn't stockpile.
Fat lot of good that did!

The army are being bought in to deal with distribution, PPE, Medicines, food, etc. They are not building field hospitals officially yet (but are on stand by to do so and some potential sites lined up) but medics are reinforcing frontline in the NHS. They will probably be supporting the police soon as the police are expecting to be down 40% of their numbers due to self isolating and illness. But we do not have the numbers to actually check every single person does not abuse the rules around exercising etc. If a more serious lockdown is implemented then it will be done through check points and patrols and the threat of sanctions (fines, prison) not micro managing everybody. I don't think that cluttering up 101 or 999 for every infraction is going to work it will just mean they are diverted from things which should be prioritised. Unfortunately if dispersal and personal responsibility don't work, then it will be check points, patrols and increased sanctions.

Calm down Flouncy Knickers.

It’s like the summer holidays on my estate. No one Seems to care about the lockdown

I think this requires a certain amount of common sense, which seems to be missing in some people. By all means report your neighbour if they are having a house party every other weekend. Or your local pub/salon if they are continuing as usual. But you don’t know how many times a day someone needs to go out for legitimate reasons. My family will be out in the car tomorrow, I have a pregnancy scan which I need to attend, and whilst I can drive I’m not comfortable driving at the moment due to a large bump forcing my seat further back and hindering my ability to reach the pedals properly (curse my tiny stature). It’s far safer for my husband to drive me, and for that to happen our two year old will have to come with us as we can’t exactly leave her on her own!!

To an outsider it looks like a family day out ‘flouting’ the rules, in reality it’s a medical appointment I have every right to attend.

No, the dystopian nightmare is when there are so many corpses that convoys of military trucks have to be brought in to take them away. Which is what is currently happening in Italy.
The situation with your neighbours is infuriating XmasRibbons
My DD is a front line NHS worker, please try to preserve her and her colleagues lives.

This reminds me of that AIBU thread – my daughter saw a dinner lady eat a fish finger. Should I report it to the school?

If we had been given notice, the shops would have been as rammed with panic buyers, yesterday, as the previous 10 days.

I was tempted to report the local drug dealers. One of them lives with a very fragile grandparent too.

OP will be setting up her video camera in her front window or front garden to catch anyone walking past more than once a day

Yep, I'm sure the police and army are on stand by for such things, not helping crowd dispersal/ supplying PPE and essential items to the very vulnerable.

They may be going to work and back. Out to exercise once. To the pharmacy. To the shop. Delivery people. Carers.

If some genuinely have no better ways to use their time than this, you need to be a bit more creative.

I was in my kitchen washing the dishes this morning and looking out of the window in front of my sink I counted 56 people walking past in the span of about 20 mins. Some in groups, some as couples. I've been seeing large groups of young people at night loudly roaming the streets. I don't think it's worth the phone call because the police won't do anything. They'll probably say 'keep a log' and that will be it.

Barking, East London Borough, this morning at 11am.

Probably all on their way to/from work, or exercising but gosh isn’t it busy!!