Would you call the police on neighbors if you hear domestic issues/violence ?

bitemebankers

At the end of the day, you just have to use your judgement. For a one-off, I probably wouldn't say anything unless there were obvious indications of actual violence. If it seemed violent, on-going or particularly one-sided, I'd be inclined to put a call in though.

On calling the police - use the anonymous crimestoppers number, preferably using a PAYG mobile. The police will NOT protect your privacy and repercussions are certainly not unheard of.

swingaloo

Our next door neighbours moved in during the summer when its usual to have windows open. They heard several bouts of loud shouting from our house and not knowing us well they were very concerned.

Concerned to the point where after a while the lady crept round to our window as she was on the point of ringing the police.

Where she saw - me sitting peacefully on the couch with a book and the other half stood in the middle of the floor jumping up and down and screaming loudly at the jockey on his horse.

Oh the joys of Saturday racing!

We have laughed about it so many times since but she said she could have sworn he was killing me:rotfl:

Prothet_of_Doom

No. Let them kill each other, and pretend you didn't hear.
Well, the worst that can happen is that one person gets life in prison, and you get new neighbours.



Sorry that was irony...of course phone the police...even if it's just a non violent row, it will be enough to shock them into silence for a while

ifstar

bitemebankers wrote: »

On calling the police - use the anonymous crimestoppers number, preferably using a PAYG mobile. The police will NOT protect your privacy and repercussions are certainly not unheard of.

The vast majority of the time, the police WILL respect your privacy if you tell them you don't want to have them contact you or attend at the door. I suspect you've had a bad experience but it is very far from the norm and shouldn't be used to put people off calling.

devildog

I had a call from my youngest who is at Uni about this very same thing a few weeks ago. Had moved out of halls into privately rented and the neighbours were having a domestic at approx. 2am and wanted to know if the police should be called.
For some reason, which to this day I cannot explain, I never heard house phone, or my mobile and my eldest never heard their mobile either( strange as we usually wake at slightest thing)
Anyhow, as we didn't hear phones youngest was about to call for police, when the police turned up!
It is a difficult one because domestics can sound a lot worse than they actually are, but like someone said, if you do nothing......

DomRavioli

Just my two cents...

I've had noisy neighbours (psycho next door has just moved out) but never felt the need to call the police because someone was being loud.

Its curtain twitching nosey people who waste police time over trivial matters - Maybe just go round and ask if everything is ok, some people get noisy over sport, concerts, friends, even in the bedroom! Stop getting paranoid that every person is a serial killer / stalker / violent thug and get out a little more, then you wouldn't think everyone is so evil!

I've had massive rows, had one a week ago over the phone and god knows what the neighbours thought, but I have the right to enjoy my home, and not have nosey idiots pry.

And lets be honest, the police really do have better things to do than that, if you are concerned, you need to speak to the local authority regarding noise, not the police (unless someone is in immediate and present danger).

joansgirl

Nobody phoned the police when my ex husband was beating 7 colours of sh*t out of me. I wish they had then maybe he wouldn't have thrown the ironing board at me, breaking my cheekbone. After I'd left him he turned up at my new digs one day and tried to drag me down the stairs by my hair. The LL had offices downstairs and witnessed all this so he did call the police. I still live in fear of my life from him.

marisco_2

A neighbour who contacted the police when they suspected that I was suffering from domestic violence helped to save my life. I think it is possible to tell the difference between a couple having a humdinger of an argument, and there being an incident that is getting out of control and escalating to the stage where someone could get seriously harmed. I have not been in the situation of having to make that judgement call about anyone, but I know I could not sit back and ignore things if I felt concern for another person.

bitemebankers

DomRavioli wrote: »

And lets be honest, the police really do have better things to do than that

Such as?

I can't think of many more important things for the police to be doing than following up reports of suspected domestic violence.

if you are concerned, you need to speak to the local authority regarding noise.

Err, no, if you're concerned that someone is being beaten up, you call the police. That's what they're there for.

Anyone would think you were concerned that the police might be called out on you.....

Flower08

We used to live next door to a couple who we regularly heard arguing.
One night it got particularly loud, went on for a lot longer than normal and then we could hear things smashing against the wall.
I ended up phoning the police because I was so annoyed they had woken my son up who normally sleeps through anything (that shows how loud it was!), and I am glad I did because when they got there he was injured from where she had been throwing things at him in a drunken rage.

The comment about the police having better things to do is silly, if I hadn't phoned the police that night who knows what would of happened to that poor man.