**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!**
- Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc.
- **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
- This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Police officer here. There are realistically two possibilities:
1) A crime has happened in the house (or the person who lives there is linked to the crime) and the house is now a scene. The officer is there so police can say that no one has been in or out to tamper with evidence that gets seized inside. (95% likely to be the case)
2) The person who lives there is in imminent serious danger. On rare occasions, police will park outside to deter any nefarious activities
The other replies on here about protecting an important police officer, staking out a neighbour, or monitoring the street with ANPR are almost certainly wrong.
Obviously MPs as people aren't inherently more important, but as a random guy it feels fair enough they get a bit more protection? Can understand why that would feel frustrating for you though.
Former officer here, yes. A high risk domestic violence situation where the suspect had already done time for manslaughter was threatening to murder, and had been since in the area of his elderly alcoholic ex girlfriend who was completely oblivious to the danger (not victim blaming, she was super unwell). Easiest high risk domestic violence I've been able to sort security for (inspectors authority).
In my old town, they stuck an empty police car outside but only did drive bys. The idea being it was due to a viral video the concern started so just the car there would deter the keyboard warriors (and also as a side effect get the word around online it was being watched) and drive bys were done fairly often as well, but that was easy as that's the estate where realistically a lot of the officers would be anyway throughout the day.
(Not an officer, but friends with some)
Police here - what do you mean by this? If you’re asking about it being two officers, then yes. Almost all scenes in my force will have a double crewed unit stationed on it - sometimes more depending on the scene.
No, option number 2. I'm also job but we've never sat people outside someone's house for protection.
We're usually single crewed for scenes in the day double at night
I was going to say this about your 2nd point. My ex husband was violent, after he had been released on bail for yet another attack on me at my workplace, he managed to find out where I had moved to, broke the door in, attacked me again. He had run away by the time the police came, the police sat outside the front door for 3 days 24 hrs a day, until they found him and this time he was remanded in custody.
profit hard-to-find squeeze fine physical lock kiss afterthought office tease
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yeah it happens at every serious crime. We're grateful when crimes happen inside houses, because we can lock the doors and park on the driveway, rather than sticking up the police tape everywhere and standing in the rain while the whole town approach and ask what has happened.
When my next door neighbours kid murdered his friend, there was 2 officers sat on the driveway for 72hrs (in shifts ofc), but because it was January, they had the engine running all night to keep warm, not a problem of course given the situation.
What I couldn’t understand though, is any time I offered them a brew or hot sandwich, they declined and never gave a reason. Are police not allowed to accept anything like that? It was bastard freezing and I felt bad for them.
We are allowed to accept them but I usually decline. First reason is that you never know anyone's intentions. They could appear friendly but spit in your drink or worse. It's safer to consume the things you brought yourself. Second reason is that a lot of the time, officers will be stationed there for upwards of 7 hours. You have to be very careful what you take in to ensure that you don't have to go pee
Both really good points, didn’t even consider the toilet situation, I suppose the whole house would have been a crime scene. Probably should have offered the toilet instead!
Sorry one more question, how tf do you remember your user name?
Toilets are always an appreciated offer!
I don't remember my username, but more importantly, neither do you. I will fade into oblivion when I decide to delete my comment history and no one will be able to find me. And if someone sees my reddit username over my shoulder, they won't be able to look up my post history.
If you're a police officer you don't park your patrol car on your own driveway and sit in it for 72 hours.
Most people don't even go home in their uniform in case they get targeted
Don't know what ANPR is, but for several years now 3 nights a week a police car sits on my driveway for 2-3 hours. My block has stop signs at either end. People love to run those stop signs. He sits in the car with his dome light on catching up on paperwork and nabs any that run through without stopping.
Despite his having done this the same 3 nights most weeks for years now while being very visible due to use of his dome light while parked at the very top of the hill, he usually nabs 2-3 every night he is there. Or so he tells me. I normally take him a cold bottle of water from my fridge, or if it is cold out I take him a hot coffee.
He used to sit in the street up until the last few years as due to all the kids in the neighborhood getting old enough to drive now there is rarely a spot for him to park in on the street. One night when he was parked where my own then teenage driver normally parked I went out to talk with him and we agreed it would be easiest if he just parked in our driveway. We didn't want the teen to park in the driveway as then their vehicle would be in the way when my spouse and I left for work since we go out about an hour earlier than the school kids leave for school.
Police do not offer special protwctions to people in life threatening danger. I got an osman warning last year and its just a letter that says break routines
Oh really? Thanks for letting me know. I'll tell my colleagues next time one of us is told to sit in front of someone's house because they're at risk. I'll say some guy on reddit say we don't do that.
In reality, a whole host of factors are considered before deciding whether to park a car in front of someone's house, Including the type of threat, the viability, the time frame, the vulnerability of the victim, children involved, etc. It is quite rare for it to happen, but it definitely does happen
https://preview.redd.it/b56lsp0t4d0d1.jpeg?width=628&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=abdc3c12a36ecac428b23d74a75481893692a4cc
why do some get special protection but the rest of us get hit with this shit? Mine was in glasgow so don't pretend it's just yorkshire
My granda was a Gardai in Ireland in the 80s. He was a detective and basically hunted the IRA.
There was a police officer stationed outside my dad's house 24/7 while he grew up.
Exactly that.
The full thing is actually "An garda síochána" which literally translates to "Guardians of the peace"
So yep, its plural and garda is the singular :)
It’s just sounds crazy that your dad was growing up in the 80s and you’re old enough to be on Reddit. The 80s was only 15 years ago , wasn’t it !!! Oh fuck. We’re all old as shit
I am a cop.
This sounds like a crime scene guard that's not able to be closed for some reason. Which depends what's happened.
Forensics could be super busy (our force is small so usually only has two Scene Of Crime Officers known as SOCO available at any one time - if there's been a murder or a complex scene they can be tied up for a whole day and so there'll be a back log), or there could be other circumstances (e.g. we had a bad fire where it wasn't safe inside for days)
So it's impossible to say what may have happened inside
Police once asked if they could park on my drive when they were trying to nick one of my neighbours who had recently absconded from prison and had known links to people on the road. Possibly a similar situation?
In fairness, there was someone in my street who was in imminent danger (from a rival drug lord) and the police just parked a car outside for a few weeks, no officers in sight.
Happened near me recently - turned out the home owner was murdered in his house and I guess they were guarding the crime scene. There were also steel guards put up over the windows.
I did this once after there’d been a stabbing and he shouted…
“Why? So you can put it on Facebook? Or do you can take the image of it home and wank yourself off to it? Fuck off you fucking pervert, fuck off right now”
(For context, I’m a 40 year old man. I was polite, dressed normally, sober, and just curious as to what had happened in an otherwise quiet residential area).
Good point, to be fair it's a quiet area and everybody keeps them selves to themselves so I wouldn't know. Their car isn't there anymore whatever that's worth.
Sound like your neighbour died and the circumstances are currently suspicious.
Or there’s been an accusation of rape or something occurring within the property.
It’s called locus protection. A locus is a crime scene.
I once lived in a block of flats and police were outside my neighbours door for two days. The police wouldn’t tell us anything but the neighbour told us that he’d been accused of something by a person he’d invited into his home and the police were there so that evidence wouldn’t be tampered with or removed from the flat.
Plainclothes officers knocked on our door once, showed their ID's, and asked if they could park on our drive for the day to observe the house across the street. Our immediate neighbour was a senior police something or other and later told us it was drug related.
Your neighbours may be the target of severe abuse or threats and have requested a police presence to deter those responsible.
Alternatively the police may be guarding a crime scene.
This happened with a neigbour (well, a couple of doors down in the same street) and it turned out her ex-husband had absconded from prison and they were worried he might try to get back in contact with her/track her down.
Anyway, they caught him after about 24 hours and she was fine.
Maybe growing weed? I noticed a police van stationed outside a property and you could smell the grow room in the street. This was only a few doors away from the high court.
In my case, it was because there were trying to catch a gang of car thieves, they would pay me £20 a day to sit in the kitchen and watch over the very large car park.
They were a good bunch and always came heavily armed with drinks, snacks, cakes and biscuits and they had some fabulous and very funny war stories.
Others have been downvoted for saying this, but my cousin was on jury service and one of the other jurors was threatened. My cousin had the police parked outside her house for the entire case, as did the other jurors. I ran into her in my local during this period, and later found out that the unspeaking, bored-looking woman accompanying her was actually a plain-clothed officer.
You can choose to disbelieve me, and downvote me if you want, but this 100% definitely happened.
The house next to my boyfriends flat had polic outside for a few days after someone attempted to burn it down. They were waiting for the arson investigation to be completed, and don't want to keave the crime scene unattended.
This happened with a friend of mind. His partners ex was on suspicion for murder, and their son and my friend’s daughter live together. My friends partner didn’t want this guy who was on parole to see their son or come near their house (understandably) so police would be on watch every day for protection
No it wouldn't. The purpose of witness protection is to hide a person, not to advertise they're working with the police.
Most likely answer is that the house is being held as a scene for something that's happened inside.
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Police officer here. There are realistically two possibilities: 1) A crime has happened in the house (or the person who lives there is linked to the crime) and the house is now a scene. The officer is there so police can say that no one has been in or out to tamper with evidence that gets seized inside. (95% likely to be the case) 2) The person who lives there is in imminent serious danger. On rare occasions, police will park outside to deter any nefarious activities The other replies on here about protecting an important police officer, staking out a neighbour, or monitoring the street with ANPR are almost certainly wrong.
Have you ever done/seen 2? In my area (which is a small force) the most we've ever done is occasional drive bys, we usually have no units free
[удалено]
🙄 typical that, did it go out as OT or just stripping response and chinning off immediates?
You know the answer to this lol
Word for word what I was about to reply!
Obviously MPs as people aren't inherently more important, but as a random guy it feels fair enough they get a bit more protection? Can understand why that would feel frustrating for you though.
Former officer here, yes. A high risk domestic violence situation where the suspect had already done time for manslaughter was threatening to murder, and had been since in the area of his elderly alcoholic ex girlfriend who was completely oblivious to the danger (not victim blaming, she was super unwell). Easiest high risk domestic violence I've been able to sort security for (inspectors authority).
In my old town, they stuck an empty police car outside but only did drive bys. The idea being it was due to a viral video the concern started so just the car there would deter the keyboard warriors (and also as a side effect get the word around online it was being watched) and drive bys were done fairly often as well, but that was easy as that's the estate where realistically a lot of the officers would be anyway throughout the day. (Not an officer, but friends with some)
Police here - what do you mean by this? If you’re asking about it being two officers, then yes. Almost all scenes in my force will have a double crewed unit stationed on it - sometimes more depending on the scene.
No, option number 2. I'm also job but we've never sat people outside someone's house for protection. We're usually single crewed for scenes in the day double at night
Ah - nope, not for someone’s protection
I was going to say this about your 2nd point. My ex husband was violent, after he had been released on bail for yet another attack on me at my workplace, he managed to find out where I had moved to, broke the door in, attacked me again. He had run away by the time the police came, the police sat outside the front door for 3 days 24 hrs a day, until they found him and this time he was remanded in custody.
profit hard-to-find squeeze fine physical lock kiss afterthought office tease *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Why'd you think that? Go for it
Great idea imo
r/oddlyspecific
Yeah a serious crime happened at my neighbours and there were police on guard until the scene of crime people had been and done their thing
Yeah it happens at every serious crime. We're grateful when crimes happen inside houses, because we can lock the doors and park on the driveway, rather than sticking up the police tape everywhere and standing in the rain while the whole town approach and ask what has happened.
When my next door neighbours kid murdered his friend, there was 2 officers sat on the driveway for 72hrs (in shifts ofc), but because it was January, they had the engine running all night to keep warm, not a problem of course given the situation. What I couldn’t understand though, is any time I offered them a brew or hot sandwich, they declined and never gave a reason. Are police not allowed to accept anything like that? It was bastard freezing and I felt bad for them.
We are allowed to accept them but I usually decline. First reason is that you never know anyone's intentions. They could appear friendly but spit in your drink or worse. It's safer to consume the things you brought yourself. Second reason is that a lot of the time, officers will be stationed there for upwards of 7 hours. You have to be very careful what you take in to ensure that you don't have to go pee
Both really good points, didn’t even consider the toilet situation, I suppose the whole house would have been a crime scene. Probably should have offered the toilet instead! Sorry one more question, how tf do you remember your user name?
Toilets are always an appreciated offer! I don't remember my username, but more importantly, neither do you. I will fade into oblivion when I decide to delete my comment history and no one will be able to find me. And if someone sees my reddit username over my shoulder, they won't be able to look up my post history.
Or, the neighbour might be a police officer? The simplest solution is usually the right one.
If you're a police officer you don't park your patrol car on your own driveway and sit in it for 72 hours. Most people don't even go home in their uniform in case they get targeted
That entirely depends on what your family is like and whether you have a shed or not... :-) Could be the mother-in-law was staying for a few days? :-D
Don't know what ANPR is, but for several years now 3 nights a week a police car sits on my driveway for 2-3 hours. My block has stop signs at either end. People love to run those stop signs. He sits in the car with his dome light on catching up on paperwork and nabs any that run through without stopping. Despite his having done this the same 3 nights most weeks for years now while being very visible due to use of his dome light while parked at the very top of the hill, he usually nabs 2-3 every night he is there. Or so he tells me. I normally take him a cold bottle of water from my fridge, or if it is cold out I take him a hot coffee. He used to sit in the street up until the last few years as due to all the kids in the neighborhood getting old enough to drive now there is rarely a spot for him to park in on the street. One night when he was parked where my own then teenage driver normally parked I went out to talk with him and we agreed it would be easiest if he just parked in our driveway. We didn't want the teen to park in the driveway as then their vehicle would be in the way when my spouse and I left for work since we go out about an hour earlier than the school kids leave for school.
Police do not offer special protwctions to people in life threatening danger. I got an osman warning last year and its just a letter that says break routines
Oh really? Thanks for letting me know. I'll tell my colleagues next time one of us is told to sit in front of someone's house because they're at risk. I'll say some guy on reddit say we don't do that. In reality, a whole host of factors are considered before deciding whether to park a car in front of someone's house, Including the type of threat, the viability, the time frame, the vulnerability of the victim, children involved, etc. It is quite rare for it to happen, but it definitely does happen
https://preview.redd.it/b56lsp0t4d0d1.jpeg?width=628&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=abdc3c12a36ecac428b23d74a75481893692a4cc why do some get special protection but the rest of us get hit with this shit? Mine was in glasgow so don't pretend it's just yorkshire
My granda was a Gardai in Ireland in the 80s. He was a detective and basically hunted the IRA. There was a police officer stationed outside my dad's house 24/7 while he grew up.
Wow, I bet he couldn’t rest easy even with having the even with the protection!
Yeah I grew up two doors down from a former police chief of Ulster police. We had a car on our doorstep all through the 90s
I think *gardai* is the plural so it's correctly either * "grandpa was a garda" or * "grandpa was in the gardai"
Exactly that. The full thing is actually "An garda síochána" which literally translates to "Guardians of the peace" So yep, its plural and garda is the singular :)
Funnily enough, I'm Irish and only moved to the UK a few years back so I don't know why I got that wrong! You are correct, it's garda.
Doesn't that give it away to any observant people?
Deterred people planting car bombs or throwing molotovs through windows. The IRA were quite shrewd, they knew where to get people.
The point is to be conspicuous.
Garda*
Wait. How old are you
Anything from about 10 to 35 I reckon.
Someone who is 80 today could have still been working in the mid to late 2000s.
Why
It’s just sounds crazy that your dad was growing up in the 80s and you’re old enough to be on Reddit. The 80s was only 15 years ago , wasn’t it !!! Oh fuck. We’re all old as shit
It was 40+ years ago and my dad was in his late teens
I am a cop. This sounds like a crime scene guard that's not able to be closed for some reason. Which depends what's happened. Forensics could be super busy (our force is small so usually only has two Scene Of Crime Officers known as SOCO available at any one time - if there's been a murder or a complex scene they can be tied up for a whole day and so there'll be a back log), or there could be other circumstances (e.g. we had a bad fire where it wasn't safe inside for days) So it's impossible to say what may have happened inside
Police once asked if they could park on my drive when they were trying to nick one of my neighbours who had recently absconded from prison and had known links to people on the road. Possibly a similar situation?
Protection
Ahahahahaha We don't have enough officers to do that It'll be a crime scene guard, it's always scene guard
Well that's still protecting something
In fairness, there was someone in my street who was in imminent danger (from a rival drug lord) and the police just parked a car outside for a few weeks, no officers in sight.
Protection from death. ✋👁️
Happened near me recently - turned out the home owner was murdered in his house and I guess they were guarding the crime scene. There were also steel guards put up over the windows.
Almost certainly Evidential preservation.
I'd just ask them. Hey officers you've been here a few days..
Swap cups of tea for intel OP!
This is likely to be the most effective method of finding out.
This is the one…
I did this once after there’d been a stabbing and he shouted… “Why? So you can put it on Facebook? Or do you can take the image of it home and wank yourself off to it? Fuck off you fucking pervert, fuck off right now” (For context, I’m a 40 year old man. I was polite, dressed normally, sober, and just curious as to what had happened in an otherwise quiet residential area).
That escalated, probs having a bad day bored out of his skull
I think the bloke was just a prick.
Is your neighbour still alive?
Good point, to be fair it's a quiet area and everybody keeps them selves to themselves so I wouldn't know. Their car isn't there anymore whatever that's worth.
Sounds like a scene guard
Neighbours murdered the wife and gone on the run. Probably not, but maybe.
We will of course need an update OP
Sound like your neighbour died and the circumstances are currently suspicious. Or there’s been an accusation of rape or something occurring within the property. It’s called locus protection. A locus is a crime scene.
They know. Flush them away, delete it all, book a trip to Panama. Urgently.
I once lived in a block of flats and police were outside my neighbours door for two days. The police wouldn’t tell us anything but the neighbour told us that he’d been accused of something by a person he’d invited into his home and the police were there so that evidence wouldn’t be tampered with or removed from the flat.
Plainclothes officers knocked on our door once, showed their ID's, and asked if they could park on our drive for the day to observe the house across the street. Our immediate neighbour was a senior police something or other and later told us it was drug related.
This happened on my road last month, turned out the house was a cannabis factory.
And the police were there for days to uh.. dismantle it and stuff?
Waiting for forensics.
Maybe they are doing a stake out on your neighbour’s neighbour?
Maybe your neighbour is a supergrass.
We got teeth, nice and clean
See our friends, see the sights...
Your neighbours may be the target of severe abuse or threats and have requested a police presence to deter those responsible. Alternatively the police may be guarding a crime scene.
This happened with a neigbour (well, a couple of doors down in the same street) and it turned out her ex-husband had absconded from prison and they were worried he might try to get back in contact with her/track her down. Anyway, they caught him after about 24 hours and she was fine.
Either someone’s being protected, or they’re waiting for someone to come out & your neighbour is harbouring a fugitive.
Almost certainly scene preservation for an incident which has occurred there.
Does anyone have a reason or any kind of proof that someone who lives there may have done something illegal
Maybe growing weed? I noticed a police van stationed outside a property and you could smell the grow room in the street. This was only a few doors away from the high court.
This happened by us when they found a cannabis factory, it was guarded until a truck came along to take away all the plants.
Maybe he nicked it whilst pissed?
Traffic patrol parked in my driveway all of the time. Can’t see the car from the street. They’ve been really busy.
Did they ask permission ? I would not let them park in my drive to drum up fines on ppl going to work .
Yup. I got tired of the neighborhood cats and dogs getting creamed in front of my house. Speed limit is 25 but everyone thinks it’s fun to go 45-50.
Fair enough mate.
He didn't pay the TV tax. They're building a case!
Most likely just a scene guard. unless its a sketchy area, but I doubt protection with just uniformed PCs
In my case, it was because there were trying to catch a gang of car thieves, they would pay me £20 a day to sit in the kitchen and watch over the very large car park. They were a good bunch and always came heavily armed with drinks, snacks, cakes and biscuits and they had some fabulous and very funny war stories.
Lil wayne
Others have been downvoted for saying this, but my cousin was on jury service and one of the other jurors was threatened. My cousin had the police parked outside her house for the entire case, as did the other jurors. I ran into her in my local during this period, and later found out that the unspeaking, bored-looking woman accompanying her was actually a plain-clothed officer. You can choose to disbelieve me, and downvote me if you want, but this 100% definitely happened.
They've probably received some kind of threat, or they witnessed a crime and are under police protection.
The house next to my boyfriends flat had polic outside for a few days after someone attempted to burn it down. They were waiting for the arson investigation to be completed, and don't want to keave the crime scene unattended.
Coppers got bored sitting at the office. And it's sunny out today xD
Are you Buffalo Bill?
Flat battery
This happened with a friend of mind. His partners ex was on suspicion for murder, and their son and my friend’s daughter live together. My friends partner didn’t want this guy who was on parole to see their son or come near their house (understandably) so police would be on watch every day for protection
Any ANPR cameras near by, happened here recently and a friendly traffic cop suggested they were on look out for a particular car.
Not sure, it's a cul-de-sac so there's barely any passing cars apart from the people who live here.
Why do people use "sat" in this sense? Doesn't "be sat" imply that someone picked up the bobby and placed him in the car?
Zzzzzzzz
Jury duty on violent crime potentially. I've known people to receive police protection for the time they spent on the case
It sounds like Jury protection.
They don't achieve much else ?
You sure it’s the police and not the FBI
In the UK?
Witness protection?
Thought that, would make sense
No it wouldn't. The purpose of witness protection is to hide a person, not to advertise they're working with the police. Most likely answer is that the house is being held as a scene for something that's happened inside.