A television commercial for the police has been branded ‘socially irresponsible’ after it suggested hearing a crying baby next door might not be a reason to call 999.
Surrey police launched the ad in a bid to make people think twice before making an emergency call.
It depicted a baby or young child crying through a wall with on-screen text showing the word ‘noisy’ written in blue, alternated with ‘abused’ written in red.
The text continued: ‘Not all calls are policing matters. To report noisy neighbours, contact your council.
The banned video (pictured) depicted a baby or young child crying through a wall with on-screen text showing the word ‘noisy’ written in blue, alternated with ‘abused’ written in red
Surrey Police (pictured) said more than 10,000 of the calls they received and deployed to within a 12-month period were for matters that did not need police involvement
‘When it is a policing matter Surrey Police will be there for you. Think twice. Is your call a policing matter?’
In a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), one viewer said that commercial was irresponsible for suggesting the public should make their own decision about whether police involvement was necessary.
The complainant said noise from children could be due to them being in a harmful situation, such as witnessing domestic violence or their carers being incapacitated.
Surrey Police said more than 10,000 of the calls they received and deployed to within a 12-month period were for matters that did not need police involvement.
The force said that in most cases the public knew what the problem was but did not know who to call, so they called the police.
The Surrey Police advert aimed to make people think twice about calling 999 as the force claim they receive 10,000 calls a year that are not actually police emergencies
The ASA said viewers would find the scenario in the ad ‘ambiguous’.
It said the consequences of a viewer being dissuaded from reporting an instance where they felt a child might be being abused, if those suspicions turned out to be true, were ‘extremely serious and even life-threatening’.
It said: ‘We considered that the ad was likely to be understood as discouraging viewers from reporting problems to the police unless they were certain of what was taking place.
‘Given the specific example used and the potential outcomes of failing to report suspected child abuse, we concluded that the ad was socially irresponsible.’
The ASA ruled that the ad must not appear again in the form complained about, adding: ‘We told Surrey Police to ensure that their advertising did not imply that viewers should avoid calling the police in situations where an individual could be at risk of harm.’