This evening along the river in the Docklands, several fire engines and police vehicles attended what appeared to be the search for a missing person. I happened to be outside enjoying one of my final cigarettes when, within moments, hordes of people began emerging from nearby buildings, phones in hand, trying to work out what was going on.

The moment sirens sound and blue lights begin flashing, people appear from everywhere. Windows open. Crowds gather. Cameras emerge almost instinctively.

In fact, sirens and flashing lights are constantly being redesigned to attract attention as quickly and effectively as possible. That is their purpose. But if you are not involved in the emergency and you are not on the road needing to react to it, should we really be attending the scene as well?

What could we possibly add to the situation beyond another pair of eyes?

UK-based CCTV research in places including Lancaster found that in over 90% of incidents, bystanders were ready and willing to assist. That is reassuring. The rest of it, however, is harder to stomach.

A BBC Yorkshire report revealed that emergency services are now actively imploring people not to film and document emergency scenes.

Researchers including John Drury, Stephen Reicher, and Clifford Stott have all challenged the idea that crowds simply gather to rubberneck. Their work instead suggests that people are often drawn towards emergency scenes by a mixture of curiosity, uncertainty, social influence, and the instinct to understand what is happening around them.

Unfortunately, the age of social media has added another motivation entirely: visibility.

There is now something deeply uncomfortable about the speed at which emergencies become content. Before anybody knows whether someone is safe, before families are informed, before emergency workers have even secured a scene, phones are already recording.

All of this is to say that if you are not in danger, and you are not somebody genuinely capable of improving the situation, step back.

Not every emergency needs an audience.