Partners in crime
Two weeks ago today I called the Police. I dialled 999 because I noticed that a toddler had been left asleep in a car parked outside my house. The toddler wasn’t alone, the parent had left a dog in the car with the child. It was a perfect recipe for tragedy. If you were going to break some unwritten rules of parenting you’ve pretty much hit the jackpot.
I knocked on neighbours’ doors to see if the car belonged to someone visiting, without luck.
The police were prompt; the first car arrived in about seven minutes, followed by another three over the next five minutes. Just over twenty minutes after my call to the police a woman with a child came running down the street from the nearby shopping centre, having obviously seen the four police cars parked in the street. I couldn’t say how long the woman had left the child in the car, but it was at least twenty minutes. I left the police to do what they do and returned to my house.
I’ve heard nothing since. No request for a statement or an update courtesy call. Looking at the Northumbria Police website there’s no commitment to do so. However, when there’s rarely a week goes without the police and the council in the press patting each other on the back for their strides in partnership and community engagement, is it unrealistic to expect a two minute phone call? Or am I being too needy?
