Metropolitan Police launch pointless Google powered London crime map mashup

Davey Winder
Sunday, 17 August 2008 03:38

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

So if I were to research the maps and discover that crime in area where I live is actually twice as bad as I expected, I would somehow be put at ease? Whether the figures show more or less crime in any given location is surely irrelevant when it comes to impacting upon the actual safety of that community?

My elderly mother lives in the London Borough of Lewisham, so I checked the Crime Map on her behalf. It told me that in May there were 570 reported crimes, and in June there were 612. Great, my mind is at ease, my Mother is surely much safer now that I know crime is increasing where she lives.

Still, the map insists that the crime levels in Lewisham are only average. It could be worse, my Mum could live in Southwark where crime is high.

Not that this is much comfort for Mum. She was not surprised that crime was increasing in her neighbourhood as she said all her friends knew someone who had been a victim recently. I was unable to answer her only question "and this helps make me feel safer how, exactly?"

This aggregating of burglary, theft and vehicle crime totals within the London boroughs (but not the City of London as it gets its own Police force which isn't, as of yet, playing with Crime Maps) looks likely to impact not upon crime but almost certainly upon property prices in the higher crime areas.

It has also been argued that criminals might use the maps to plot their activities, targeting properties in the low crime areas which will be seen as easier pickings than high crime areas where, one has to assume, there will be a more concentrated police presence.

The Home Office is convinced that the maps are a good thing, and is pushing for them to be rolled out across the UK.