Crime Figures for Every Street in England and Wales Now Online

Crime figures for every street in England and Wales are now available in the form of an interactive map, launched on Tuesday by the Home Office.

Earlier in the year the 43 police forces in England and Wales launched online regional crime maps that have been considered a success, with some of the websites receiving over 50,000 visits a month. And it appears that the national online crime map is set to prove successful also as the high number of visits to the website, maps.police.uk, have already caused it to crash in some parts of England. As the Daily Mail reports opposition to the launch of online crime maps is based around fears that house prices could be adversely affected and the reputation of neighborhoods already considered crime hot-spots made worse still. Police officers were said to be concerned about the creation of what the Daily Mail terms a 'burglar's charter'. But those fears were dismissed by government ministers who insisted that awareness of the extent of the crime problem in their area may encourage residents to establish neighborhood watch schemes. Improving the public's confidence in the police was another reason given for creating the latest website, which was officially launched by Home Office Minister David Hanson during his visit to a regeneration project in Southwest London. Mr Hanson underlined the theme of public confidence when he said in a statement:

Crime maps are a key part of delivering neighbourhood policing and giving communities access to information like this not only improves public confidence but ensures police are responding to local peoples needs. We know the public want this information, which will allow them to hold the police to account and help create an even more responsive and effective service

The interactive map was developed by the National Policing Improvement Agency and the body's deputy chief executive Steve Mortimore has also spoken about the website launch, saying:

Fear of crime is known to outstrip the reality. The crime map will give people the facts about local crime and what forces are doing about it. It is a crucial way of improving the efforts to tackle local crime, since communities that are involved in policing help reduce crime and bring more offenders to justice

According to Yahoo, as well as allowing the public to ascertain if crime in their area is falling or rising the map enables them to compare the crime rates in their neighborhood with those in other parts of England and Wales, over both three-month and 12-month periods. Figures confirming the overall level of crime in each area will be available, as will figures relating specifically to burglary, robbery, violence, vehicle crime and anti-social behavior. Senior police officers will post messages on the website and visitors can access information on the priorities of their local police force and crime-fighting events that they can attend.