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Full launch for Met crime maps

Wednesday saw the formal launch of London’s crime maps, which first appeared in beta only a couple of weeks back. Don’t call it ‘1.0′ though: the source code declares it’s actually ‘beta 1.02′. As before, it shows areas colour-coded for the rates of ‘burglary, robbery and vehicle crime’, based on comparisons with ‘the average’. Yes, that’s [...] read on »

Met launches London crime maps

London’s Metropolitan Police has launched the first test of its planned ‘crime mapping’ application, and at first glance, it’s really quite nice. There’s data from borough to ’sub-ward’ (a few streets), although at the moment it’s only carrying aggregated totals of ‘burglary, robbery and vehicle crime’. The ‘high/average/low’ colour coding makes it easy to take in; [...] read on »

An idea whose time has come

Crime mapping is front-page news today (in the Telegraph anyway). Most of the stories follow a predictable pattern: Ministers say it will inform the public, and make the police more accountable, but it’ll lead to house price chaos. Etcetera. But I’m finding myself infuriated by the Telegraph leader column which proclaims: The Conservative Party has appeared a [...] read on »

Crime maps by Christmas

A Home Office press release this morning makes the explicit pledge: ‘Every neighbourhood in England and Wales will have access to the latest local crime information through new interactive crime maps. [...] By the end of the year every police force area will produce crime maps which will allow the public to see where and [...] read on »

Power Taskforce’s ideas on crime maps

The Home Office is confirming that it’ll press ahead with online crime mapping, as recommended by today’s Casey Report on Engaging Communities in Fighting Crime. Even better, the Power Of Information taskforce - specifically Will Perrin and Tom Loosemore, in apparent association with designers Schulze and Webb - have posted a few concepts showing not only [...] read on »