The data revealed that generally, men were less likely than women to respond to suspicious behaviour - over half of men (54%) and over one third of women (37%) would not report it to the police – whilst just one in every 14 people would confront perpetrators directly.
The research suggests communities are becoming more passive with one third of respondents admitting that in the face of suspicious behaviour, they are most likely to post on social media, speak to a neighbour or give the perpetrators the benefit of the doubt by assuming it was nothing rather than call the police.
Jonathan Wall, UK General Manager at SimpliSafe said, “In some cases, it can take police up to five days to respond to 999 calls so having security measures in place to protect your property is vital – even more so with this evidence that neighbours, more often than not, ignore strange or unusual behaviour and tune out alarms in their area completely.
For many years, Brits have relied on traditional alarms to protect their homes, trusting that neighbours would intervene if they heard an alarm or saw signs of trouble. As this survey shows, things have changed.”
Of those who would report unusual behaviour to the police, one third (33%) would use the non-emergency number whilst a further one in five (22%) would go directly to the emergency line. The research conducted by smart home security firm SimpliSafe also revealed that traditional house and car alarms are falling on deaf ears with almost one in five Brits tuning out the sound entirely.
Belfast is home to the least helpful neighbours in the UK with over a third ignoring alarms in their street, closely followed by Nottingham (24%) and Manchester (23%). London ranked tenth (18%) in the study whilst the people of Sheffield, Newcastle and Brighton are most likely to jump into action if something out of the ordinary is going on."
