Vent No car seat!

MamaErin

New member
Does anyone know who you call to report things like kids not buckled in properly? Is there a safekids number or just the local police? I didn't want to dial 911, or should I have?

My husband and I were driving to the store yesterday and I see this car in front of us at the red light and it looked like the one guy in the back had 2 heads at 1st and I kept wondering if he had a dog in his lap or something because I could see the shadow of a second head when he moved. We turn and end up next to them after the light changes.....its a KID...no more than 3 years old...sitting in a teenagers lap in the back seat!!

2 teenage girls in the front, a teenage boy in the middle back seat, an infant seat (thank goodness the baby was in a seat, though I'm not sure it was in right) and then a little boy sitting on the guys lap! Seriously, there was an extra seat next to the guy, would it have been so hard to put the kid a car seat in the extra seat?! Or at least put him in the extra seat!? I know that still wouldn't have been safe but on someone's lap without even a seat belt!!

I wanted so bad to call on them because we could easily get their plate number but I didn't even know who to call, I don't know the non-emergency number for my police department and wasn't sure if it warranted a 911 call... even though technically I consider endangering a child's life to be an emergency.
 
ADS

Stelvis

New member
A tiny kid completely unrestrained in a moving vehicle is a 911 call IMO. That's an immediate danger.

I would obviously not call 911 for, like, misuse of a car seat. But if you are so irresponsible that you just do not care to restrain a toddler in any way in a moving vehicle, then yes that's an emergency.
 

Baylor

New member
I have the non regency number in my phone for the local police where I drive that is who I call. It goes to dispatcher for the county.

auto correct hates me
 

Raegansmom4

New member
I once asked a local policeman this question at a CPST renewal course once. He said to go ahead and call 911 - you are reporting someone breaking a law after all.
 

~*Jen*~

New member
I once asked a local policeman this question at a CPST renewal course once. He said to go ahead and call 911 - you are reporting someone breaking a law after all.

Thanks for sharing. I once saw the woman next to me let two little kids (I think four and five) climb into the back of a station wagon. I called the police but it took forever to find the non-emergency line on my phone. I was telling someone else about it and was told that the police probably ignored it and/or laughed at me. :thumbsdown:
 

MamaErin

New member
Well it's nice to know I'm not the only one that would have called 911. I thought about it but I didn't want the dispatcher or anyone being snotty that I was using the emergency line for what they probably didn't consider an emergency.

It's nice to know an officer actually said to do that! I will definitely try to find the non-emergency number and store it in my phone though at least for my town and if I'm out of town I guess 911 works.

It just got to me too because it had me wondering in a car full of teenagers...were they teen parents or was it like a teen sibling or babysitter....I would have lost it if it was my babysitter or older child driving my kid around on their lap!
 

krasota

Well-known member
I asked an officer in my town, too. He told me to call 911 when I see it, not the non-emergency line.

But if you want to know what your local PD prefers, call the non-emergency line and ask. :cool:
 

Malka

New member
I've called 911 for a unrestrained toddler. I gave them the license plate number and they said they'd send someone out to check on it. I really do hope they did and didn't hang up and laugh at me.
 

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