Police call handler request.

No, you’re not being unreasonable, due to your circumstances. However, if it was me, I would have gone to see if anything was amiss, before calling the Police, clutching my mobile phone!

Patsy70, if it was a house I would have done so but the flats have a layout with the front door and then a rather steep flight of stairs to a long hallway....the kitchen and rear door are to the end of that hall.
If anyone was there (that shouldn't have been!), your exit could easily be blocked.

Then you did the right thing Dee1012.

This happened to me many years ago, when I lived in my house alone except for my two dogs. I came home late one night and fell asleep on the sofa leaving the two dogs sitting by the wide open door. I awoke to find my neighbour accompanied by a policeman standing outside the garden gate wondering if they dared come into the garden past my German shepherd and my collie at the front door .

You did the right thing by staying put.

I know it sounds gloomy and dramatic, but it could have been a crime scene, you might have walked in to the man sprawled out with a knife in him, so you also might have been in danger.

I appreciate your concern for your neighbour!

Police would not have entered the building alone, expecting a member of the public to do so is wrong.

The person ,
who answered your call is so irresponsible.
What an incredibly stupid idea -expecting you to pop in to check .
Anything could have been wrong .
Even if you were a superfit 20 year old -a burglar could have jumped out and attacked you .
It's not exactly reassuring that your concern wasn't addressed for five hours .
Imagine if the gentleman had been unconscious .
It doesn't bode well for the future ,does it ?

Esmay

The person ,
who answered your call is so irresponsible.
What an incredibly stupid idea -expecting you to pop in to check .
Anything could have been wrong .
Even if you were a superfit 20 year old -a burglar could have jumped out and attacked you .
It's not exactly reassuring that your concern wasn't addressed for five hours .
Imagine if the gentleman had been unconscious .
It doesn't bode well for the future ,does it ?

It goes along with Matthew Barber ( police federation?) saying that the public should tackle shoplifters!

Have you seen the flat owner since ? Wonder why the front door was left open for so long.

This happened to me. I was walking past my neighbour's
door and saw it was open. Her car wasn't there so I thought she must be out.
I luckily had her number so rang her and she asked me to go in and check.
I did and everything seemed as it should be. Nobody was there.
I was nervous going in and afterwards thought I should have asked someone else to go with me so I don't blame the OP for refusing.

We had a nasty break in some years ago, we got home to see Police everywhere except in the house, they hadn’t entered as they were not sure if the burglars were still inside.

You did the right thing.

YANBU at all, as someone else said, it could have put you in danger. It is not reasonable for the police call handler to ask you to do that as a member of the public and they should have made a welfare call to check on the flat.
Honestly words fail me at how little the police get involved in anything 'domestic' these days.

silverlining48

Have you seen the flat owner since ? Wonder why the front door was left open for so long.

silverlining48, I haven't seen anyone at the property since and although the Police did attend, all they did was close the door so I'm fairly certain it's unlocked.

The person who lives in the flat underneath has said she'll also listen out for anyone but as we all work...the property is 'at risk' to a degree.

Earlier this year at breakfast time I saw 2 men hanging about in the alley alongside the end terrace house opposite me. They then entered the yard of the house through the insecure gate. The yard has a high-ish wall and high wooden gates so these men could not be seen from the road. I rang the police as I knew the family were not there. The call handler was slow in taking details. Probably up to half an hour later two police cars arrived, sirens blazing and parked further up the road by which time the men, obviously alerted by the sirens, had escaped. If the sirens had not been on they would probably have been caught red-handed. Had I not seen them enter, they could have been in the house all day. Some time later the family informed me the police had closed the case in spite of my description and that the police had the men on CCTV. The way they broke in suggests they went equipped for burglary. I felt really sorry for the family. Is there no Victims Support now? Certainly they had no visit from them.

Happened to me many years ago. A young lad collapsed outside my house, he was acvompanied by his friend who ran off. I called the Police because he was laid in the road, Inwas asked if I could go and have a look because they were ' very busy'. I said no because I was on my own, and a policewoman eventually turned up, took one look saud 'oh it's ....( name) and left him.there 🙄

And.......what was wrong???

One of my neighbours is a thoroughly unpleasant man .
But he's had security cameras installed which seem to cover our part of the street .
I do think that he's a bit neurotic as he checks everything all the time and writes car numbers down.
As he won't speak to me I asked his wife if she'd check to see if my parcel had been delivered and stolen .
She did check .
It turned out to be OK .
It is reassuring to have those security cameras .

My alarm went off and my neighbour called the police, knowing we were away.

She is a small woman and was 7 months' pregnant at the time - which they knew because she was our watch co-ordinator, and they told her to come look around too!!

If I saw someone collapsed I think I'd call the ambulance rather than the police??

I thought that too, welbeck

My husband works in telephony, so I asked him.

The call handler was following correct procedure. If a door is ajar and no other details are known, the police will ask whether the person calling can have a look to add any further details or useful information that could be necessary.

If a person had fallen downstairs, for example, then my husband could conference in the ambulance and ask them to attend. If the police don’t know that’s needed until they arrive (and that could take a while), that’s a loss of precious time.

Alternatively, if someone pops their head around the door and calls to see if someone is there and there’s no answer, they will be advised to shut the door and secure the property.

But the situation you describe is not something that requires a police presence. The police staff are stretched so thinly now it’s almost impossible for them to attend a property with an open door just to do a welfare check - if someone was there asleep and had neglected to shut their front door, this would be a total waste of police time and resources. You need to give them as much information as possible to work with. If someone had been injured, the police would not even need to attend, only ambulance.

At that time, there was no danger to life; anyone could have resolved the issue by shutting the door! The public are quick to criticise the police yet expect them to attend what are, frankly, total non events. Just ask someone to shut the door!

I think you did right. Perhaps the call handler did not realise you were an older person. Caution is the better part of valour. You were not to know that it was not a risky situation with someone lunking in the property.

In your position I would probably not have got involved at all. I have a policy of avoiding interaction with neighbours as much as possible.

A while back a neighbour tried to talk me into being a keyholder for another who had dementia. She wanted me to be prepared to go into the house to check in the lady in the event that her daughter could not contact her by phone.

I refused because I have mobility problems myself. I would not be willing to go into another house in these circumstances unaccompanied by another person. What if I were to be accused of something untoward? What it I found someone had fallen and were unable to lift them - then had to wait with them for hours until an ambulance came?

I am 81 years old and arthritic so I can just about look after myself.

Esmay

The person ,
who answered your call is so irresponsible.
What an incredibly stupid idea -expecting you to pop in to check .
Anything could have been wrong .
Even if you were a superfit 20 year old -a burglar could have jumped out and attacked you .
It's not exactly reassuring that your concern wasn't addressed for five hours .
Imagine if the gentleman had been unconscious .
It doesn't bode well for the future ,does it ?

So do you think officers were sitting round doing nothing for five hours? They were probably dealing with something more urgent than someone left a door open.

A burglar could jump out when you walk back into your own home, maybe we need a police check when we get back from the shops.

Nothing wrong with the call handler asking, nothing wrong with the OP saying she wasn't able to do it.