Police ringing my doorbell when visiting my neighbour

Pollycat

hollydays wrote: »

I never open my door without the chain on. It's basic safety, next time it might not be the police pushing past you.

IIRC it's a communal door.

If there isn't already a chain on that door it may not be possible for the OP to put one on.
And it could be an issue because if someone puts the chain on and goes off to their own flat, it may mean another resident is locked out.

There seems to be a very simple resolution to this - the police use the right doorbell to gain access.

hollydays

I realised that . That's why I have put " only speak to the police through the closed door". It was a serious point- don't open the door to a stranger.

It's very unusual , OP , not to have a spyglass or a glass panel in the door?

It's entirely possible that the police are getting a call to go then are additionally being directed " this person is deaf" , which may explain why they ring the communal bell. The police deal with so many calls, and they send different officers all the time. Give the police a break. It's not deliberate.

Pollycat

hollydays wrote: »

I realised that . That's why I have put " only speak to the police through the closed door". It was a serious point- don't open the door to a stranger.

It's entirely possible that the police are getting a call to go then are additionally being directed " this person is deaf" , which may explain why they ring the communal bell. The police deal with so many calls. .

From what I've read, there isn't a communal bell.
The police are ringing the OP's bell.

gettingready wrote: »

Police has been coming to one of the neighbours every day since Sunday and they keep on ringing my bell and then barging past me saying they have to go upstairs.

Person they want to see is deaf/hard of hearing BUT has own specially adapted doorbell outside communal door so I see no reason at all for the Police to keep on calling mine.

I wonder if this 'specially adapted doorbell' is clearly marked so that visitors can tell it is for the flat with the hard-of-hearing resident.

If it is, the police have no reason at all to ring the OP's bell.

hollydays

As I envisioned it, it was the main secure door to the flats , they are ringing the first bell to get access, but thats probably because they are being told on the incident report the AP Is deaf.
The problem would be I guess, you wouldn't want to alert to strangers" there's a deaf person living in these flats" .



The police are damned if they do, damned if they don't.
They are still responding quickly to some urgency. That cannot be wrong.
The fact is, it's recently dawned on the op that they've got a neighbour with issues, the quick solution to that I'm afraid , is to move.
The thing to do is to make an official complaint to the police so it's on record.Personally, I wouldn't use the word 'barging 'though.

rach_k

I would just stick a note next to your bell saying that you will only open the door to your own visitors. If they ignore that, then complain.

Pollycat

Thinking about the generalities of this, I recall a similar incident.

Our house is number XX and the house numbered XX-1 is probably 100 yards further down the road as we have a cul-de-sac next to us which has a different street name.

We started getting weekly hand delivered letters for number XX-1.
This continued for a while and I'd walk up the road and post to the correct address.
Then I started putting a note on asking that the recipient tell the poster that they were delivering to the wrong address.
Actually, it was plain idleness, can't-be-bothered finding the right house.

Months on, we were still getting the letters.
So I started writing 'not known at this address' and putting them in the post box.
Of course they had no stamp on so no idea what happened to them.
But it did stop whoever posting the letters through our letter box.

indsty

Have you tried speaking to the police when they are leaving. I can understand that they may have to respond quickly to whoever has called them and therefore do not have time to have a conversation with you as they are arriving.

However, if you go out and speak to them when the incident is over and explain your problem they may be more receptive. On the other hand, if it is different officers (which is likely) every time, then they don't know that you are being constantly bothered and they are probably fed up with the whole situation as well !

maisie_cat

DoaM wrote: »

Door bell rings.
You walk to the hallway to see who it is.
You can tell it is the police again, so you walk back to your flat.
Police wait for intended person to actually come down and open the door.

Do that often enough and the police will stop ringing your bell. Problem solved?

My first thought at this was the likelihood of being arrested for something spurious, perhaps I read too much in newspapers about the police

hollydays

maisie_cat wrote: »

My first thought at this was the likelihood of being arrested for something spurious, perhaps I read too much in newspapers about the police

To be arrested , you need to have committed an arrestable offence

DoaM

maisie_cat wrote: »

My first thought at this was the likelihood of being arrested for something spurious, perhaps I read too much in newspapers about the police

hollydays wrote: »

To be arrested , you need to have committed an arrestable offence

Precisely. And as OP said right at the start ... the neighbour is expecting the police, indeed is waiting for them to arrive, The police simply won't wait for ONE minutes for the neighbour to come down 2 flights of stairs.

If OP follows my suggestion then there shouldn't be any trouble. If the police then tried to arrest the OP for obstruction then they'd have a valid complaint against the police ... I doubt the police would want that hassle. (We're not in the USA you know).